Goldberg distorted poll of DNC delegates

In his first daily column from the Democratic National Convention for USA Today, National Review Online editor-at-large Jonah Goldberg distorted a New York Times survey (pdf) of Democratic delegates. In arguing that convention delegates are "far to the left of the mainstream," Goldberg claimed that "5 out of 6 say the war on terrorism and national security aren't that important." In fact, the survey's respondents never said national security issues "aren't that important." Rather, the survey Goldberg cited shows that 16 percent of delegates -- about one in six -- chose either "War," "Iraq," or "Terrorism" when asked the following: "What do you think will be the most important campaign issue in your state?" [emphasis added] While five out of six delegates determined other campaign issues to be "the most important" in their states, the survey did not ask respondents to rank the importance of issues below what they thought "will be the most important campaign issue."

Goldberg replaced right-wing pundit Ann Coulter, whom USA Today originally commissioned to write conservative commentary from the Democratic convention. As Media Matters for America previously noted, USA Today rejected Coulter's column on the "Spawn of Satan convention" on July 25 for editorial reasons.