Posts Tagged ‘Democrats’

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The New York Times Really Does Think You’re a Moron

Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

Right after I talked about how the mainstream media thinks you’re stupid enough to swallow badly skewed polls, Jim Geraghty reports that the New York Times is proving my point all over again by publishing a poll with more Democrats and fewer Republicans in the sample than in 2008 exit polls.

Ohio 2008 exits: 39% Democrat, 31% Republican, 30% Independent.

Ohio New York Times/Quinnipiac 2012 sample: 35% Democrat, 26% Republican, 35% Independent.

In this sample, the partisan split is D+9 compared to D+8 four years ago, and the GOP is five percentage points smaller than in 2008.

Pennsylvania 2008 exits: 44% Democrat, 37% Republican, 18% Independent.

Pennsylvania New York Times/Quinnipiac 2012 sample: 39% Democrat, 28% Republican, 27% Independent.

Somehow a D+7 split has turned into D+11 split, and Republicans’ share of the electorate is nine percentage points less than they were four years ago.

Florida 2008 exits: 37% Democrat, 34% Republican, 29% Independent.

Florida New York Times/Quinnipiac 2012 sample: 36% Democrat, 27% Republican, 33% Independent.

Each party’s share only shifts a few percentage points, but the overall split goes from D+3 to D+9.

One again, the New York Times thinks Republicans are too stupid to figure out the con. If they’re going to be that absurdly biased, why not just cut out the middleman and poll Obama for America staffers directly?

Remember: The business model of The New York Times is to envelop liberals in a soft, warm, comforting cocoon of reassurance that their ideas and leaders are popular. You saw this in 2010, when it dangerously blinded them to the coming Republican wave until too late. The same patterns is repeating itself this year.

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Posted in Democrats, Elections, Media Watch | No Comments »

A Bit on Polling (or, Why the Media Thinks You’re a Moron)

Tuesday, September 25th, 2012

Remember how how incredibly tight the 1980 election was? How Ronald Reagan managed to edge Jimmy Carter at the last minute despite losing Texas and New York?

Probably not, mainly because that didn’t happen. But as Jeffrey Lord’s story makes clear, that was the narrative the New York Times was pushing most of the fall, and they had “polls” to back it up.

In the pantheon of lies, damn lies, and statistics, polls aren’t even as valid as statistics. At this point, polls by the usual MSM suspects (NYT, PPP, CBS, MS/NBC, Time, Newsweek, NPR, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times, just to name a few) aren’t designed to gauge the race, they’re designed to encourage Democrats and discourage Republicans. They are, as Lord notes and Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee admitted to Ed Rollins, offering up “in kind contributions” to the Democrats.

So let’s take a brief look at the many ways in which the MSM is distorting polls for the benefit of Obama and the Democrats.

  • Dick Morris (who knows a thing or two about polling) thinks the idea that an Obama victory is in the offing is bunk. “All of the polling out there uses some variant of the 2008 election turnout as its model for weighting respondents and this overstates the Democratic vote by a huge margin.” He also notes that even the skewed polls show Obama at less than 50%, and “the undecided vote always goes against the incumbent.”
  • By one analysis, pollsters are oversampling Democrats by an average of 6.1%.
  • More evidence that the media is oversampling Democrats.
  • A technical analysis of how that dynamic applies to Pennsylvania.
  • Jay Cost notes that “polls that do a poor job of differentiating enthusiastic non-voters from enthusiastic voters are going to overestimate Obama’s margin.”

    • Every week you see the media going to bat for Obama, and every week we see more evidence of lack of enthusiasm on the part of Democrats compared to 2008. 2010 did happen, no matter how much the media would like to pretend it didn’t. The Tea Party hasn’t gone away, nor suddenly decided that they like Obama’s free-spending ways after all. The fundamentals of our ailing economy and staggering unemployment haven’t gone away either. And remember: Republicans now outnumber Democrats in party identification.

    There’s a lot better chance that this election’s results will look like 1980 than that they will look like 2008.

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    Posted in Democrats, Elections, Media Watch, Republicans | 1 Comment »

    LinkSwarm for September 23, 2012

    Sunday, September 23rd, 2012

    Random swarm of interesting links for your amusement and edification:

  • Just in case you didn’t notice, in Obama’s interview with Univision (where he faced much tougher questions that from America’s lapdog media), Obama pretty much admitted that he failed, because “you can’t change Washington from the inside.” Really? I’m sure that platform would have gotten you a lot of votes in 2008.
  • Nice George Will profile of Tea Party-backed Utah congressional candidate Mia Love.
  • Why Wisconsin is in play in 2012.
  • Mitt Romney donated $4,020,772 to charity in 2011. Meanwhile, Obama was too busy to donate $400 so his half-brother could eat for a year.
  • Barack Obama is so awesome he can fit 18,000 people in a 5,000 seat arena.
  • In what high esteem to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid hold Obama? Take a look:

  • More Shenanigans on the Round Rock ISD board.
  • Don’t read this if you love dogs or have high blood pressure. More of that special quality of service we’ve come to expect from United Airlines.
  • Finally, Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Most Embarrassing Emmy Awards Outfit of All Time:

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    Posted in Democrats, Elections, Media Watch, Republicans | No Comments »

    Texas vs. California: First Day of Fall Edition

    Friday, September 21st, 2012

    Time for another Texas vs. California round-up of how the Lone Star State is kicking the not-so-Golden State’s ass in just about every measure except signing NBA free-agents.

  • You know how bad California’s debt was? Well, it’s worse than that. A lot worse. Try “at least $167 billion and as much as $335 billion.”
  • California may see more bankruptcies. (Gee, ya think?) And Jerry Brown’s desperate hunt for money is pushing more cities that way.
  • Texas continues to outperform the rest of the nation in export growth.
  • Is Democrat-run California broke because it’s corrupt? “The governor and Democratic leaders are no more serious about reforming pensions than they are about shuttering state parks. The goal they are serious about is raising taxes.”
  • Bankrupt San Bernandino eliminates almost 100 jobs.
  • You know how some claimed California beat Texas in job growth? Yeah, not so much.
  • How bad has it gotten? Minor league hockey team has “Our City Isn’t Bankrupt Night” to taunt rival Stockton.
  • Texas’ tort reforms worked, doubling the number of Texas doctors between 2000 and 2005.

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    Posted in Budget, Democrats, Texas | No Comments »

    Proposed Romney Ad: Burying the American Dream

    Thursday, September 20th, 2012

    FADE IN: Long shot of funeral.

    CUT TO: Shot of Obama in a black suit standing near an open grave.

    Obama: The American Dream enjoyed over 200 years of life.

    CUT TO: Men with Obama For America t-shirts with shovels picking up dirt from a pile labeled DEFICIT SPENDING and tossing it down into the grave.

    Obama: But it’s time for us to bury it today. It’s outlived its usefulness.

    CUT TO: Several young children at the bottom of the grave, already partially buried, as dirt rains down on their heads.

    Child: Wait, we’re not dead! Stop burying us!

    CUT To: Obama.

    Obama: It was a fine dream, but we have to move on to another dream: Of a government welfare state present at every moment of every American’s lives…

    CUT TO: Men shoveling in more dirt.

    Obama: From the cradle…

    CUT TO: Children in hole.

    Obama:…to the grave.

    Children: Stop! Just give us a chance! We want our dreams too!

    CUT TO: Obama.

    Obama: Farewell American dream. It was nice while it last.

    CUT TO: Children in grave.

    Children: Stop! Stop!

    CUT TO: Long shot of funeral, as the men continue to fill the grave.

    Children: (screaming) STOOOOOOOP!

    FADE OUT

    Anyone know the best way to send this to Romney, Restore Our Future, or American Crossroads?

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    Posted in Budget, Democrats, Elections | No Comments »

    Billionaire Wants Ft. Worth Taxpayers to Pay For His Hobbies

    Wednesday, September 12th, 2012

    Ft. Worth has a $49 million budget deficit. So they’re doing the responsible thing that Texas governments do when faced with budget shortfalls: Cutting back on spending. (Maybe someone should tell California (or Europe) about this radical approach, since no one there seems to be able to cut a budget except at the edge of bankruptcy. And frequently not even then.)

    The City of Fort Worth is looking to cut the arts program by 25% which would bring the Arts Council budget to just over $537,000.

    Businessman Robert Bass and his wife have are against the budget cuts and argued for funding to be restored before the city council.

    Robert Bass is a multi-billionaire. He could pay the amount cut out of his own pocket and it would literally be less than how much his personal wealth fluctuates on the ups and downs of the stock market on any given day. But instead of ponying up, Bass believes that Ft. Worth taxpayers should foot the bill.

    You might think that a Texas oil billionaire would be a big Republican contributor. You’d be wrong. Beneficiaries of his contributions in this cycle have been Democrats like Dianne Feinstein, Ben Nelson, and Claire McCaskill. (And his wife Anne was equally generous to Democrats.)

    Government exists to carry out those tasks that cannot be carried out by non-governmental organizations (defense, courts, etc.). Government should let individuals voluntarily fund the arts out of their own pockets rather than forcing taxpayers to pick up the bill. If Robert Bass wants art organizations in Ft. Worth to be funded, all he has to do is write a check, not demand taxpayers pay for his hobbies.

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    Posted in Budget, Democrats, Texas | No Comments »

    LinkSwarm for September 7, 2012

    Friday, September 7th, 2012

    Still trying to get back in the swing of things, so here’s a LinkSwarm for a lazy Friday:

  • Texas is on track to enjoy a $5 billion budget surplus, which I thought news too good to hold for the next Texas vs. California roundup.
  • The vast, yawning Obama jobs gap.
  • How Obama destroyed the Democratic Party.
  • The outgoing New York Times public editor just comes out and admits the paper is a shill for the Democratic Party:

    Across the paper’s many departments, though, so many share a kind of political and cultural progressivism — for lack of a better term — that this worldview virtually bleeds through the fabric of The Times.

    As a result, developments like the Occupy movement and gay marriage seem almost to erupt in The Times, overloved and undermanaged, more like causes than news subjects.

  • Dwight covers yet another green scam.
  • Those self-identifying as Republicans now outnumber Democrats among American voters.
  • Here’s irony for you: The Obama Administration’s War on Fossil Fuels is harming the environment in the Gulf Coast.
  • If you haven’t seen the Democrats’ self-inflicted God debacle, here’s the video:

  • And here’s Allen West’s ad about it.

  • One democratic delegate was so offended he left the party and joined the Occupy protestors.
  • Speaking of Occupy, the would-be Occupy Cleveland bridge bombers have pleaded guilty.
  • The $4.351 trillion difference between Obama and Clinton.
  • More economic rumbles from China, which is no surprise to anyone who has heard about the “Ghost Cities.”

  • Toll road between Austin and San Antonio to have 85 MPH speed limit.

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    Posted in Budget, Democrats, Economics, Foreign Policy, Media Watch, Republicans, Texas, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

    Today’s Award for Most Delusion Democratic Optimism…

    Thursday, September 6th, 2012

    …goes to Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee for predicting that Texas will turn into a Democratic blue state “as early as 2014.”

    Yeah, right.

    Maybe you should, oh, I don’t know, elect a single statewide office-holder before asserting that Texas is turning blue…

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    Posted in Democrats, Elections, Texas | No Comments »

    Californians Can’t Even Stop Spending When They’re Actually in Bankruptcy

    Wednesday, September 5th, 2012

    The City Council of San Bernardino, California failed to pass budget cuts at their meeting Tuesday, despite the city already being in bankruptcy.

    After a meeting that lasted more than nine hours and stretched past midnight, the San Bernardino City Council failed to pass a plan for drastic budget reductions, an initial step in the city’s bankruptcy proceedings.

    The proposed “pre-pendency plan” included $22.4 million in cuts, achieved by measures including slashing more than 100 jobs and closing three of the four city libraries. It would not cover the entire $45.8-million budget shortfall, but city staff called the plan a necessary first step.

    Proposed cuts to the Fire Department became an irreconcilable sticking point. Twenty positions in the department were slated to be eliminated without layoffs, and the plan included an option of rotating closures at fire stations.

    Instead of voting on the budget plan as a whole, Councilman Chas Kelley made a proposal to vote on an alternate plan for the Fire Department that was backed by the firefighters union, and to direct staff to seek bids on a proposal to contract out some of the city’s trash services.
    The vote, taken after midnight, passed 4 to 3 but was promptly vetoed by Mayor Pat Morris, who had called that plan “irresponsible” and an “almost slavish adoption of a union proposal without any analysis.”

    Maybe they can delay things long enough that repo men are actually carting furniture out of the council chambers before they vote…

    (Hat tip: Dwight.)

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    Posted in Budget, Democrats | 2 Comments »

    Democrats Take 2: Oh, THAT Catholic Cardinal!

    Wednesday, August 29th, 2012

    Via Moe Lane comes word that Democrats have reconsidered their decision to reject Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s offer to lead a prayer at the Democratic National Convention.

    Two days ago: Die in a fire, you dress-wearing, anti-choice freak!
    Yesterday: Oh, that Cardinal! We love that guy! Can’t enough of him! Yeah, he can offer the closing prayer.

    So Democratic delegates will have to spend at least a few minutes that day pretending they don’t hate Catholics.

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    Posted in Democrats, Elections | No Comments »

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