Third Party & Independents: Archives

How about hard issues missing during the debate? Like —- oh, I don’t know — the environment? I kept waiting for it, and when the last question was about “strong women” I felt completely cheated. Am I the only one who feels the state of the environment is an issue in this election?

No. I was also annoyed that the environment didn’t come up.

I guess no one wants to mention the cleaner air we’ve been breathing recently.

I agree, Alejo. Schieffer just plain sucked as a moderator. With oil prices going through the roof, I wanted to hear about energy policy, too.

From my blog:

As I watched the post-debate coverage, I could only shake my head at how ill-prepared the networks were. Instead of having policy experts available to explain where the candidates were getting their numbers from, whether they were accurate, and to further clarify and inform about the candidate’s positions, reporters interviewed campaign officials, called it a “wonk-fest” and declared the debate a wash. Morons.

As I have posted before, our media has and is trying to control this election’s outcome. If you notice MSNBC poll which has over 2 million voters shows Kerry with a 2:1 lead. Since your computer can only vote once, the polls should be showing around the same numbers, but they are not. Could it be that the six media owners in this country are trying to keep interest in the game just like they do a basketball or baseball game? Have our news anchors become blow by blow commentators while we sat at home with our bag of popcron?

Nice conspiracy theory, Henry, but an easier explanation would be that deleting your cookie from MSNBC.com allows you to vote repeatedly.

I wouldn’t be surprised if both sides have vote bots programs going, considering there were 400,000 votes on MSNBC within a half hour.

ceejayoz,
And if you eliminate even 90% of the votes you come up with the same numbers. For the speard of 2
:1 has not changed since a few minutes after the debate.

On the theory, you need to wake up and start listening to how the media is “balancing” the talking points. The fact the all the media outlets showed Bush with a Bounce only on one poll the day after the republican debate should give you a clue considering two other polls taken at the same time showed Bush/Kerry tied, yet the media didn’t report on them. Well, that statement is not actually true. Judy of CNN thought she was off camera when she got caught live talking to a stagehand about it during the end of the break. Sorry, but I don’t know how to link instant media or I would of blogged it that day.

Since we’re talking polls now, I thought I’d post this article. A few weeks ago we had a heated debate over what the men and women that actually serve under Bush think about him. That poll has now been published.

Poll: GIs, Families Trust Bush Over Kerry

WASHINGTON (AP) - When asked who they would trust as commander in chief, people in military service and their families chose President Bush over Sen. John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, by almost a 3-to-1 margin.

Bush, who served in the Texas Air National Guard, was more trusted by 69 percent while 24 percent said they trusted Kerry more, according to the National Annenberg Election Survey released Friday.

Among all Americans, Bush has a more narrow advantage on trust to be commander in chief, 50-41.

The military sample was far more likely to be Republican than Democratic, which could help explain the more favorable view of the president. Four in 10, 43 percent, of the military sample said they were Republicans, while 19 percent said Democrats and 27 percent independents.

Those in the military and their families have a more favorable view of Bush than Americans generally, and they take a more optimistic view about Iraq, the economy and the nation’s direction.

A majority in the military sample, 64 percent, said the country is on the right track. Among Americans generally, 55 percent said the country is headed in the wrong direction.

The National Annenberg Election Survey found that seven in 10, 69 percent, had a favorable view of Bush. Only three in 10, 29 percent, had a favorable view of Kerry.

The Annenberg poll, which does not report head-to-head preferences, did not ask the military respondents who they support for president. The report cited a 1948 law that prohibits polling members of the military about their voting intent.

The poll of 655 in the active military and their families was taken Sept. 22-Oct. 5 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Their answers were compared to those of 2,436 adults surveyed between Sept. 7-Oct. 3 with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

You can read it here

I’m proud to be on the same side as our military during this war.

-D

I belive Henry’s point is well made. If the electorate thought either candidate had an insurmountable lead few would show up at the polls to vote. I think that the media is only trying to keep this interesting. Not to mention ratings would slip.

And who said the media were biased?

I ‘tested’ voting in the polls online. I went to the MSNBC site. The one that showed Kerry at 69% and Bush at 39%? How much is that totalled up anyway? 108%? Maybe it said Bush 29%.

Ceejay is right. I checked to see if I could vote more than once and - not to my surprise - I could. I just removed my ‘cookies’.

Scarborough was even cracking jokes about the MSNBC online poll.

I hope no one is relying on these polls. We know the parties use the numbers when they are good and say they don’t matter when they aren’t.

AP,
Do me a favor and go to my blog ‘Is it Right ..’.
I have posted questions about Kerry’s Health Plan and it was suggested you may have some answers.

Henry and Rocky:

Am I understanding you fellows to say Kerry is going to win by a landslide and the media is just skewing polls so they’ll have something to report on? Interesting….

Alejo,
I wouldn’t presume anybody is winning at this point.

Neither would I. That’s why I couldn’t see what the two of you were getting at.

Alejo,
Although I am not saying that our media would or has ever uesed their influence to cater to an idea, I think if the news would of reported the other two polls showing no bounce for Bush right after the republican convention we might be looking at a difference race.

Remember the week long love feast over the “Bush Bounce?”

Henry, that’s an interesting theory. It’s the same way bookies handicap a fight or sporting event by giving odds. The idea is to get the same amount of money coming in for both teams so the bookie can just have the losers pay off the winners while taking his cut as profit.

I don’t think the media is actually conspiring to make this a tight race, but I do think the tone of their reporting shifts depending on who is perceived to be winning. They always root for the underdog. If it’s a blowout, they lose ratings.

AP, Do me a favor and go to my blog ‘Is it Right ..’. I have posted questions about Kerry’s Health Plan and it was suggested you may have some answers.

OK Dawn, but you have to come over to my blog, “Middle-Class Tax Cuts”, we’re talking about Kerry’s healthcare plan there, too. :)

Dawn,
Do you think that every American is cheating on the MSNBC poll just to see Kerry ahead?

Maybe you need to look at the media in the early 70’s when they attacked the two reporters that broke Watergate.

Besides name me one other political race which could drive up the ratings of MSNBC, Fox, and CNN.