Time poll rehashed smears of Obama: an unpatriotic "elitist" who lies about his faith
SUMMARY: A Time/SRBI poll asked likely voters with an "unfavorable opinion" of Sen. Barack Obama to respond to various "reasons that voters give us for having an unfavorable opinion of Barack Obama," which included: "He's really a Muslim and not a Christian"; "He's an elitist who doesn't understand the needs of ordinary people"; and, "He's not as patriotic as he should be."
The most recent Time/SRBI poll, conducted September 26-29, asked likely voters with an "unfavorable opinion" of Sen. Barack Obama to respond to various "reasons that voters give us for having an unfavorable opinion of Barack Obama." Among the "reasons" the poll offered were attacks on Obama's character, including suggesting he has lied about his religion: "He's really a Muslim and not a Christian"; "He's an elitist who doesn't understand the needs of ordinary people"; and, "He's not as patriotic as he should be." The poll also asked all respondents how well various "statements describe Barack Obama and his campaign for the presidency." Among the "statements" the poll offered was: "The real Barack Obama holds extreme positions which won't be revealed until after he's elected, no matter what he says now." Neither the October 1 Time.com article on the poll nor the questionnaire posted on SRBI's website gives any indication that respondents were told of reasons that voters might hold "an unfavorable opinion" of McCain or were asked to give reasons why they hold such an opinion of McCain -- even though the poll itself found that more respondents hold an unfavorable view of McCain than of Obama. Nor were they asked if the "real" John McCain "holds extreme positions which won't be revealed until after he's elected, no matter what he says now."
From the September 26-29 Time/SRBI poll:
Q13. How well do each of the following statements describe Barack Obama and his campaign for the presidency?
D) The real Barack Obama holds extreme positions which won't be revealed until after he's elected, no matter what he says now
[...]
Q19a. Here are some reasons that voters give us for having an unfavorable opinion of Barack Obama. For each one tell me if it's a major reason that you have an unfavorable opinion, a minor reason, or no reason at all?
E) He's really a Muslim and not a Christian
[...]
Q19a. Here are some reasons that voters give us for having an unfavorable opinion of Barack Obama. For each one tell me if it's a major reason that you have an unfavorable opinion, a minor reason, or no reason at all?
F) He's an elitist who doesn't understand the needs of ordinary people
[...]
Q19a. Here are some reasons that voters give us for having an unfavorable opinion of Barack Obama. For each one tell me if it's a major reason that you have an unfavorable opinion, a minor reason, or no reason at all?
G) He's not as patriotic as he should be
He's really a Muslim and not a Christian"; "He's an elitist who doesn't understand the needs of ordinary people"; and, "He's not as patriotic as he should be."
Karl Rove working at TIME now?
This is the poisoning of the political discourse in this country by the loud-mouth right wing nuts. How their talking points can become friggin' polling questions is beyond reprehensible. Why even bother to have an advertising budget when you have the MSM?
Thank you, MMFA, this is great research. Much better than wasting your time on WorldNetDaily!
I love how they add the question about not being "patriotic" enough. I don't know if any of you noticed in the debate that Obama was wearing a flag pin while McCain was not. Hmmm. Seems all those flag pin lovers didn't have a problem with McCain not wearing it. I wonder what would have happened if the situation was reveresed.
Yes, but didn't someone who Obama is/was friends with once say something bad about America? How do you know for sure he's not working with the terrorists? How do we know which side he would take in a Holy War? I know America would be on the Christian (i.e. good) side. How do we know Obama won't choose the Muslim (i.e. EVIL) side? What if he starts helping poor black people rise up against wealthy Christian white people?
</snark>
I'm suspicious of John McCain because he spent the greater part of a decade living in a Communist country!
</snark>
What...me racist? No way...at least that's what people say publicly.
From this poll:
When asked if Obama's race would be a factor in their vote...90% said no.
when asked if they knew anyone who is less likely to vote for Obama because of his race...44% said yes.
What...me racist? cont.
Reading a little further finds 38% said they knew someone who would vote for Obama because he's black.
This kind of garbage is what breaks my heart and gets me to weep for the future of our country............
It is useless conjecture on the part of the corporate owned media to insult the collective intelligence of We the People......
It is also another example as to why We the People (ie; the government) needs to seperate the media from the grips of any and all non-media corporate influences!
In other words.... Disney should not be allowed to own ABC.... Westinghouse/CBS.... or NBC/GE..... stop radio/tv/newspaper consolidation!
Fairness Doctrine? Maybe.... if anything..... repeal the Telecommunication Act of 1996!!
To: captfoster2. Hey, capt, didn't some of us cover this already? Your remarks are right in the pocket. When our sources for "news" or "information" are owned and controlled by cabals that are (usually) right-wingers what is stopping them from coloring that information to suit their own agendas? TIME MAGAZINE? Holy Crap, what a way to skewer a "poll"; just ask negative opinions about a candidate who happens to be Barack Obama, but ignores the same for John McCain. The "evil empire" doesn't even have to disguise it's tricks anymore by using the old "fair and balanced" moniker. Why do we need to be reminded that there are morons who believe Obama is a Muslim? How often do we need to be told Obama is not "patriotic enough"? I know someone who works at ABC News (he has nothing to do with the News, per se) and his paychecks are signed by Disney!
As to McCain's negatives, and there are plenty, what about John's religion? We all "know" he worships Mamon. Patriotic? Where was HIS lapel pin? Wasn't he born in a "foreign" country? Is he really a citizen? Oh, I forgot. John was a POW. That excuses everything, right?
And what about likely voters with an "unfavorable opinion" of Sen. John McCain???
The poll didn't give "any indication that respondents were told of reasons that voters might hold "an unfavorable opinion" of McCain or were asked to give reasons why they hold such an opinion of McCain" -- mmfa
So what! mmfa is not in charge of all the polls and the questions that they decide to ask. Each poll decides for themselves what informtion they are trying to glean and what questions they think are the most effective to determine the information.
This article is just a weak effort by mmfa to play hall monitor...and to dispute anything that is not liberal enough for their agenda.
You're right, each poll does decide, but the answers given in the Time poll were well known, and well worn smears and lies. MMFA is NOT telling them what to do, they are pointing out their misinformation, remember what the point of this site is don't you?
It's not about being "liberal enough". It's about forwarding conservative misinformation, and LIES about the democratic presidential candidate in a major news publication that is respected and believed.
Magnolialover, "...a major news publication that is respected and believed."? Not anymore.
Wesley:
Are you less likely to vote for McCain because:
a) he has changed his religion in the past ten years
b) he is a Manchurian candidate. All those years in a Vietnam prison were spent programming McCain into someone who works for the enemies of the U.S.
c) His true positions are really liberal no matter what he says now.
d) He took money from an organization in league with Al Qaeda (if you believe Jim Corsi).
Are those reasonable choices?
I understand that this isn't "push polling" per se, but we need to define a term to describe this kind of propaganda-driven polling. "Bad polling" doesn't quite do it justice. This is intentionally bad polling being presented in a way to harm one of the candidates and thus influence the race.
Why weren't reasons given for unfavorab;le opinions on John McCain such as:
His father-in-law's wealth catapulted him into politics...
His father-in law acquired his wealth through illicit means, essentially acting as front man for the biggest organized crime figure in Arizona...
John McCain was a serial adulterer...
Does anyone know if Time asked these questions? Just curious.
read one of my earlier posts in another thread today from rolling stones. It's 10 pages long, but worth the read. You'll find all sorts of stuff about jukebox, like when he decided to fly out of pattern and proceeded to cut a power line with his plane that plunged a few neighborhoods in spain into complete darkness.
Never thought I would say this, but WITH?
Time poll did not invent these smears. It appears to me they were polling to gauge the impact of these smears.
What's the point of repeating debunked smears, which may produce the effect of giving validation to them? And, to be fair, did they ask people if they believed John McCain had an inappropriate relationship with a female lobbyist as was suggested in a New York Tiimes article a few months ago?
I agree with your second point. They should have (does that invalidate my first WITH? may be).
On your first point though, they were using smears that gained traction. As I said, they did not come up with them. Were they giving validation to incorrect claims? I am not a statistician or pollster so I cannot say if asking a poll question like 'Do you believe McCain is gay?" gives validation to a rumor (that does not exist) that McCain is gay.
Slightly off topic, since we got into a war and wasted precious (American and Iraqi) lives based on lies and polling on how best to sell a war product, in my opinion, it is useful to know how effective propaganda, lies, myths, smears are so that you can guard against them.
Good points...but, using your analysis, perhaps these questions would be better asked after the election if the only legitimate purpose for repeating the smear is to gauge its effectiveness. Otherwise there is a risk that by repeating the smear while people are still deciding for whom to vote you may be reinforcing an apprehension that the voter may have been entertaining...and possibly affect that person's vote.
What strikes me as odd is the sheer number of questions focusing on the respondents' subjective impressions of Obama and the complete dearth of similar questions about McCain. Ten questions ask people to respond to characterizations of Obama's campaign and 8 more ask for reactions to "reasons that voters give us for having an unfavorable opinion of Barack Obama." There are also several that ask the respondent to characterize Obama based on his race - is he "a traditional black candidate?" On the flip side, there were absolutely no balancing questions of any type about McCain. Given the fact that McCain's unfavorable rating was higher (38% - 33%) than Obama's, it seems odd that the pollsters would be completely uninterested in the sources of negative feelings toward McCain and his campaign. Certainly those individuals also gave the pollsters reasons for their unfavorable opinions of McCain - why for instance, didn't the poll ask for perceptions about his health, his temper, his ties Bush administration policies, his choice of running mate? These issues were every bit as much in the news and on the minds of voters as Obama's stealth plan to impose Socialism or whatever other "extreme positions" the poll refers to that presumably will remain unknown until after the election.
Thank you for making the points I was trying to make...but a lot better than I was able to.
It is ironic that one would say "He's an elitist who doesn't understand the needs of ordinary people" when Senator Obama has one home and one car.
Who is the elitist? Of course, Senator McCain - several homes and 14 cars. McCain does not understand the needs of ordinary people. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure this out.
Sen. Barack Obama has worked for poor and middle-class people for most of his political lifetime. Anyone living in Chicago, knows that his neighborhood is not the best neighborhood in Illinois.