Selectively citing Gallup poll's findings, Morning Joe joined Drudge Report in touting "Gallup shock"
SUMMARY: MSNBC's Morning Joe echoed the Drudge Report by displaying the on-screen text "Gallup shock" and selectively citing only one of three findings from an October 13-15 Gallup daily tracking poll of the presidential race -- the one that showed Sen. Barack Obama holding his smallest lead over Sen. John McCain.
On October 17, MSNBC's Morning Joe echoed the Drudge Report by displaying on-screen text that read, "Gallup shock," and selectively citing only one of three findings from an October 13-15 Gallup daily tracking poll of the presidential race -- the result that showed Sen. Barack Obama holding his smallest lead over Sen. John McCain.
During an interview with NBC chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell, co-host Willie Geist asked Mitchell about "the daily tracking poll that shows a two-point lead" -- a finding from the Gallup poll that Obama led McCain by a margin of 49 percent to 47 percent among 2,143 " 'traditional' likely voters (based on the model taking into account current voting intention and past voting behavior)." However, neither Geist nor Mitchell mentioned that the same poll also found that Obama led McCain 49 percent to 43 percent among 2,786 registered voters, and 51 percent to 45 percent among 2,312 "more broadly defined likely voters (based on the model taking into account current voting intention only)." During the discussion, Geist also aired a graphic of Gallup's finding that Obama led McCain by two percentage points among likely voters -- the graphic did not specify that the poll result sampled "traditional" likely voters.
On-screen text during the Morning Joe segment read "Gallup Shock: Likely Voters: Obama 49%, McCain 47%":
Below is the Drudge Report's headline:
From the October 17 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe:
GEIST: Now, let me ask you about this poll -- this Gallup poll. Make of it what you will. We will look at it the daily tracking poll that shows a two-point lead.
MITCHELL: Don't tell [NBC political director] Chuck Todd I'm doing this.
GEIST: No, I'm not. We told him to turn off the TV. Now, ignore the poll if you want, but isn't it true, Andrea, that this race is much closer than some of the double-digit polls we've been looking at over the last two weeks or so?
MITCHELL: I think that's what a lot of people are saying. And in talking to the people in the campaign -- and you guys do, and Mark talks to everyone in the campaigns -- this thing is volatile, and nobody really knows what people are gonna do when they end up voting. Yes, when you look at the battleground states, there's no question that John McCain is actively defending today, yesterday, and the coming days -- defending what ought to be solidly Republican states, and he has a much bigger stretch in order to make up that gap. And, you see, you know, you see Barack Obama is -- John McCain has to defend these Republican areas where he shouldn't be wasting his time and money, frankly, at this stage, and Barack Obama is reaching out to expand the electoral map. But it could still be very close, and we shouldn't jump the gun.
Wow, they can't even use today's polls? It's 5 electoral votes away from a landslide, dudes. Get over it.
A Reagan-Mondale type landslide? Or a Nixon-McGovern type? Or maybe a Clinton-Bush type?
I suppose it could be a Clinto-Dole, but I'm still thinking 28 states max for BHO. Of course the right (or left) 28 would be a landslide by general definition.
All this shows is that even in polls that are highly in "favor" of McCain, McCain still loses.
ask yourself. sarah palin in the oval office? an even more blithering idiot than the blithering idiot of the last eight years.
Do you have a link to a poll of likely blithering idiot voters? That might be effective for the McCain camp to use.
according to letters to the editor, she's qualified because "she took on the good old boys network in alaska". and other such meaningless drivel. what doesn't seem to get mentioned is the fact that she seemed to spend a good deal of attention on getting her brother in law fired, and appointing unqualified high school classmates to high state positions. perhaps if she's vp, she can have the cia "disappear" her brother in law.
Listen to this psycho.
That was truly frightening. I do like the part about how the media should examine the views of those in Congress to see if they're anti-American, as if that phrase has any meaning at all in this context, as if it relies on something besides the warped standards of someone like Michelle Bachman. Does she not believe the media is liberal? If so, why would she take any stock in their findings, since they're part of the same generalized anti-American crowd?
This link shows exactly who she is?
She's a seriously deranged Christian nutbag.
A few quotes from her.
"God called me to run for congress."
"Is this your will?"
"After two days God
made that call."
"You are now looking at a fool for Christ."
This woman, and all who have voted for her, are what's wrong with America.
One of the largest communities in her district is St. Cloud, MN. I lived there for three years and there is one particular characteristic of the area that struck me most strongly. I have never lived anywhere else where people were so casually, unapologetically racist. Granted, I haven't lived in that many places, small town northern MN, North Dakota, Phoenix AZ and Mpls/St. Paul, but it was so extreme it made a big impression on me. That's Michelle Bachmann's base.
El Tinklenberg has been running against her in an uphill battle. He's been badly underfunded, and yet he's recently pulled to within the margin of error. I've donated to his campaign (my congresswoman is a shoo-in) because I'd love to see lunatic Bachmann out. It is a college town, so a really strong student turnout could put him over.
There's talk in the state that she's being groomed to run against Amy Klobuchar for US Senate in 2012. That would be a huge step down for the Minnesota.
El Tinklenberg has been running against her in an uphill battle.
Bill, maybe if he (?) changed his name to something that didn't sound so much like a Mexican Jewish/Nazi fairy , the uphill battle would be a little easier. I'm not a political advisor, just sayin'...
I still like Palin. I would like her to "discipline" me. If ya know what I mean.
Make sure you have a "safe" word. Energetic but unschooled would be my guess.
I'm not very familiar with Bachman but I think I understand what she's hinting at here.
First, if you're on the good ship USA, you don't want it to sink, so her anti-American charge has to be translated. The anti-American is the non real American who does not vote with the Republicans which is the party of the real American.
The liberal or leftist (as I interpret her) would be those who are real Americans but who don't vote with the party of the real American---the GOP.
When the "likely voters" poll results were favoring Obama more than the "registered voters", Gallup only released the "registered voters" numbers. Now that the "registered voters" poll results favor Obama more than the "likely voters", Gallup starts releasing numbers for three models.
The corporations that control the electronic voting may be very aggressive this year in flipping votes...
They have a built-in excuse: They can say it was the "Bradley Effect."
I hope we get some good exit polls.
Close my @ss...
Snoopy, from what website are you getting that graphic? I'd like to check it out.
I did my military overseas ballot yesterday. Lots of fun knowing that due to the electoral college, my vote probably won't matter (since I live in Louisiana)
Hey, NG, good to see you back here.
Here's a site with those pie charts and a few others.
snoopy's pies come from FiveThirtyEight.com, which I'm very sorry you've been missing up until now. It's the dude from Baseball Prospectus with all the uncanny statistical predictions applying his magic touch to electoral politics. He accounts for pollsters' track record of accuracy and right/left bias, mooshes them all together in a computer simulation, runs ten thousand trials, and comes up with those figures. It's pretty cool.
You are wrong TadeKorn...
The last 3 exit polls in Germany were correct within .02% of the official result. That's 2/10ths of 1 percent.
Exit polls done properly are incredibly reliable, and were used to overturn an election in the Ukraine. Exit polls in the USA (2004) were ignored by the corporate media, and those who suggested the exit polls were correct were quickly labeled as "nuts" by the MSM.
It's only in the good ole' U,S. of A that exit polls are misused and marginalized. Welcome to the Banana Republic.
CNN AND NEWT ON GOOD MORING AMERICA WERE JUMPING ALL OVER THAT POLL. LIKE I SAD WHEN THE RIGHT-WING MEDIA SEE A POLL THAT LOOKS GOOD FOR MCCAIN THEY WILL SPIN IT IN A WAY THAT MAKE IT SEEMS LIKE THE REST OF THE POLLS ARE WRONG. I LOVE WATCHING FOX AND DRUDGE TALKING ABOUT THIS POLL. HEY RASSUMSEN IS THERE GOD WHEN IT COMES TOO POLLS. BUT SINCE MCCAIN IS DOWN IN HIS POLL THEY ARE JUMPING ON THE ONES THAT THEY LIKE TO SAY IS WRONG. HEY I SEE ROVE GOT ANOTHER FAURD IN JOE THE PLUMBER LIKE HE HAS IN PALIN THAT THE RIGH-WINGERS AND RIGHT-WING MEDIA ARE FALLING IN LOVE WITH. YOU CAN TELL WHEN ONE OF ROVE CONS ARE WORKING THEY WILL TALK ABOUT IT 24/7. NOW THAT THE RACE ATTACKING DIDN'T WORK THEY ARE CALLING THE PEOPLE WHO DON'T VOTE FOR MCCAIN AND PALIN UN AMERICAN.
No, I don't remember when they did that. Can you link to those MMfA items?
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/