How Obama Got Elected (Update)
John on November 17, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Well, I guess you can consider this a follow-up to Howard Stern, but the accompanying Zogby Poll pretty much confirms a conservatives worst fears about how the media swayed the election. Let’s start with the video:
Now the poll data:
57.4% could NOT correctly say which party controls congress (50/50 shot just by guessing)
81.8% could NOT correctly say Joe Biden quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism (25% chance by guessing)
82.6% could NOT correctly say that Barack Obama won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot (25% chance by guessing)
88.4% could NOT correctly say that Obama said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket (25% chance by guessing)
56.1% could NOT correctly say Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground (25% chance by guessing).
And yet…..
Only 13.7% failed to identify Sarah Palin as the person on which their party spent $150,000 in clothes
Only 6.2% failed to identify Palin as the one with a pregnant teenage daughter
And 86.9 % thought that Palin said that she could see Russia from her “house,” even though that was Tina Fey who said that!!
Only 2.4% got at least 11 correct.
The “Russia from my house” line is the one that steams me. I pointed out prior to the election that this was a widespread misconception based on a dishonestly edited interview and piled on by a bevy of late night comedians. Here’s my previous correction on this. But just because it bothers me here it is again:
PALIN: I do believe unprovoked and we have got to keep our eyes on Russia, under the leadership there. I think it was unfortunate. That manifestation that we saw with that invasion of Georgia shows us some steps backwards that Russia has recently taken away from the race toward a more democratic nation with democratic ideals. That’s why we have to keep an eye on Russia.
And, Charlie, you’re in Alaska. We have that very narrow maritime border between the United States, and the 49th state, Alaska, and Russia. They are our next door neighbors.We need to have a good relationship with them. They’re very, very important to us and they are our next door neighbor.
GIBSON: What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?
PALIN: They’re our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.
GIBSON: What insight does that give you into what they’re doing in Georgia?
PALIN: Well, I’m giving you that perspective of how small our world is and how important it is that we work with our allies to keep good relation with all of these countries, especially Russia. We will not repeat a Cold War. We must have good relationship with our allies, pressuring, also, helping us to remind Russia that it’s in their benefit, also, a mutually beneficial relationship for us all to be getting along.
Everything in bold was edited out of the broadcast. Let’s try it this way:
GIBSON: What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?
PALIN: Well, I’m giving you that perspective of how small our world is and how important it is that we work with our allies to keep good relation with all of these countries, especially Russia. We will not repeat a Cold War.
Sounds rather different, don’t you think? Probably wouldn’t have become a line that 87% of voters knew on election day if they’d edited it that way. Oh, but that’s cheating you say? So explain to me the edits made to Barack Obama under very similar circumstances. 60 minutes literally cut to an answer he have five minutes later in response to a totally different question!
In short, the media chose Obama’s best, most concise answer but when it came to Palin they eliminate the answer that would have explained her response, i.e. “perspective of how small our world is and how important it is that we work with our allies to keep good relations with all of these countries…” Instead they took the initial response and let it hang out there like raw meat for the comics. Intentional? Hell yes.
And that doesn’t even get into the dishonest splash about Palin wanting to start a war with Russia from the same interview! Even though she clearly said she would not want to start a war with Russia, they edited that part out and ran a banner headline claiming she might start a war.
EXCLUSIVE: GOV. SARAH PALIN WARNS WAR MAY BE NECESSARY IF RUSSIA INVADES ANOTHER COUNTRY
Less than 24 hours later they ditched the ALL CAPS headline and rewrote the story in a more responsible manner, but the damage was done.
Overall, ABC, NBC and CBS ran 18 negative stories about Palin for every one positive. That killed the lead McCain briefly had after her convention speech. They turned it around for Obama. It wasn’t that he ran a flawless campaign. It was that his flaws got relatively little airtime.
So in the end, 87% of voters walked into that booth believing Palin “could see Russia from her house” which was a joke from a Saturday Night Live skit. Only 44% knew about Obama kicking off his political career at terrorist Bill Ayers’ house, which was a fact based on the testimony of eyewitnesses.
Ya think the media had a horse in this race?
Update: Hot Air notes that John Ziegler who created the video and paid for the poll is responding to critics. He offers to pay twice the cost of a new poll aimed at McCain voters. However if the poll shows McCain voters were statistically better informed, the other party must agree to repay his money plus the cost of the initial Obama poll. So far no takers.
Category: MSM & Bias |
John, I think those morons that were interviewed should not only be disqualified from voting but they should not be allowed to breed. We have turned into a nation of idiots.
I wear a tshirt with Obama wearing a Mickey Mouse hat. Informed Obama voters have come up to me and asked me why he was wearing that “thing’ on his head. They had no idea I was expressing my opposition to Obama. Just plain dumb as dirt!
I’ve now been reduced to a tshirt that reads “Impeach Obama”. I think the dumbbells that voted for him will ask me if Obama is planning on going into the fruit business – I think they’re that stupid.
November 17, 2008 @ 9:33 pmJim,
The thing is, these people aren’t stupid. Of the people surveyed for the poll:
These are competent people who basically had enough time or inclination to catch the highlights prior to voting, probably in the last 2-3 weeks. And the highlights they picked up were essentially all negatives about Palin. The narrative was that she was an ill prepared hypocrite. They all knew about her pregnant daughter. Most of them knew about her clothes. None of them knew about how Obama got his Senate seat.
Essentially the media created a vibe that Palin was a bad choice. Whether it swung the election or not is debateable. What’s not debateable is that it had an effect. I’m thinking, at the least, those swing states would have been a lot closer without this in-kind gift from the MSM.
November 17, 2008 @ 9:44 pmJohn, the old saying, “You can educate an idiot” comes to mind. If any of those people on the video graduated from a public high school, then all I can say is that we are graduating a nation of imbeciles who get their news from MTV, John Stewart and Bill Mahar. It truly is pathetic. They possess no capacity to think critically.
One liberal I spoke with didn’t even know who Herbert Hoover was. He didn’t know that raising taxes during a recession was a bad idea! These are not exceptions to the rule here. These are people I talk with all the time. Educated, but profoundly stupid.
November 17, 2008 @ 10:55 pmMy wife, who is almost always right, says:
“Americans should have to demonstrate a basic understanding of American politics to be allowed to vote”.
My father-in-law thinks we should own property to have the right to vote.
I think they’re both right.
Unfortunately, it seems like most folks in this country vote based on whatever seems fashionable at the time. It’s not a bad approach when buying jeans, but your jeans won’t run your life for the next four years.
November 17, 2008 @ 11:59 pmUnfortunately this is the role media plays in society today. Had McCain won, people would have made the same stupid videos claiming that it was the south and the bible belt and inbreeding. The vast majority of the country don’t follow everyday politics because the results are often far enough in the distance that it doesn’t seem relevant to their day to day concerns. Although mass media obviously plays a role in all popular beliefs and ideas, this particular case is not the media’s fault. If anything it can be considered the fault of the republican strategy in this election, for putting a sitting duck at the forefront of their campaign. Srsly, Sarah Palin?
November 18, 2008 @ 12:29 amSo, those who didn’t qualify for the vote would be exempt from taxes, presumably? Or would you also advocate returning the United States to a colony of the British empire?
That might make ignorance more appealing….
November 18, 2008 @ 4:08 amElitism to be sure. I believe the words “idiots” and “morons” are both unhelpful and unchristian and reveal an air of superiority as opposed to gracious humility. It just may be that God is more concerned with the state of the church (us) than of those who are politically uninformed.
November 18, 2008 @ 5:11 amKeith,
Oh, SURE! That is JUST what you people have been hoping for for the last 225+ years…just wait around and EVENTUALLY you Brits will get the chance to move back in and take this whole thing over again.
Well, no way MAN! No Way!
:-)
November 18, 2008 @ 6:36 amJust sayin’. If you want to abandon the principle of no taxation without representation, then we’d like our colony back and let’s just call it water under the bridge.
Oh, but lets just be clear about one thing; show a little more respect for tea this time, or it’s off to bed early without any supper for the lot of you.
November 18, 2008 @ 7:01 amTo my knowledge, The African-American members of my church all voted for Obama. The media’s portrayal of Sarah Palin as an inexperienced idiot gave them the excuse they needed to vote against the McCain ticket and for a man who defends infanticide.
November 18, 2008 @ 7:23 amMark,
There’s no doubt Palin was unprepared with regard to foreign policy. That’s why they held off so long before the big Charlie Gibson interview. But there’s a big difference between judging someone for what they actually said and judging them for a) something they didn’t say, i.e. I can see Russia from my house b) something they clearly contradicted, i.e. let’s start a war with Russia and c) something the interviewer got wrong in the first place, i.e. Charlie Gibson’s insistence that Palin had said God was on our side in Iraq when what she had said was “Pray that” we’re acting in accord with God’s will. Big difference.
All three happened in that first interview and all three hurt her and McCain badly.
November 18, 2008 @ 10:09 amI believe the continuing support for Sarah Palin is another unintended but nonetheless tangible aspect of the original post. :cool:
BTW – I heard only today that China insists that the number of abortions it allows should be considered a “carbon footprint credit” in future trade agreements.
November 18, 2008 @ 10:40 amI very nearly became physically ill watching this. Its so very disheartening! The one guy wearing light blue didn’t watch the MSM; what did he watch? What was his opinion of Obama based on? Does it not occur to people that they are only getting part of the story, if that?
November 18, 2008 @ 10:47 amOn a soap box of my own; I went to youtube to watch the intyerview with Sarah Palin and Matt Lauer. The comments on that video were unbelievable. The called her a W****, a selfish self serving B****, an bad mother they called her stupid and the list continues. I would really love to see a difference between the conservatives and liberals in our postings. It seems like people have developed personal vendettas with nothing to base them on. Its very disturbing.
The folks in the black community cared about one thing in this race – what was Obama’s skin color? To be fair, blacks vote Democrat in large numbers. However, the number of blacks who registered to vote was “through the roof” and the prime reason that motivated them was skin pigment. Think of the reverse and you’d have the media calling white people racists.
Again, every black person I talk with believes me to be a racist when I tell them that I didn’t vote for Obama. They immediately assume a racial motive. Due to their poor reasoning skills and other factors, they can’t help but bring themselves to any other conclusion. When I inform them that I voted for a black man for President, Alan Keyes, they just look at me like a deer caught in the headlights. I just chalk it up as another “dolt vote” for our incoming Messiah.
November 18, 2008 @ 10:57 amKeith, I agree with your comments on “no taxation without representation”. The reality is that would have eliminated 40% to 50% of the democratic base. We would have won in a landslide and could not even be accused of “elitism”.
November 18, 2008 @ 11:44 amId seen this before, it was really disguisting when the guy said Nill Maher was his main source of new
November 18, 2008 @ 12:44 pmAmazing…
I actually didn’t know the thing about Biden…I suppose I should have taken a few more minutes to investigate him!
I wonder what these people will be saying in a few years when their Obamessiah turns out to be less than what they expected…
Because Obama and the rest of the liberals are forgetting that you should under promise and over-deliver.
There is no where for Obama to go from here, except down. Too bad for them…but great for the rest of us!
~T the D
November 18, 2008 @ 1:11 pmhttp://thedrunkelephant.blogspot.com/
Gotta tell ya’ Keith, most of those folks are already not paying taxes!
November 18, 2008 @ 9:54 pmI should clarify one thing: to my knowledge, my father’s belief that people should have to own property to vote applies only to votes on property-related issues.
That being said, last week I was getting a manicure in a salon with all Vietnamese employees. One of them was studying for a citizenship test, and her client was “testing” her on the basic civics questions in her study guide. The questions were as simple as, “How many stars are on the American flag and what do they stand for?” and “Who signs a bill into law?”
I was happy to see that new US citizens need to know these basic things, but I was also flabbergasted that the American-born, voting clients in the salon couldn’t correctly answer the questions.
THAT’S the kind of test I think people should have to pass to vote. We make legal immigrants pass it to become citizens. Why shouldn’t existing citizens have to know that stuff, too?
You have to pass a test to drive. Arguably, voting without knowing the “rules of the road” can be just as dangerous.
November 18, 2008 @ 10:49 pmIt is curious that being an American sems to trump being a Christian. We seem to view “these folks” in such a Christlike way. :roll:
November 19, 2008 @ 4:35 amTo Lurkers wife,
November 19, 2008 @ 7:04 amThank you for your comments.
My son works for Homeland Security. He has told me stories of people who have applied and have been accepted for citizenship- weeping and crying for joy to have become a citizen of the USA. Maybe those who have been born here do not realize the blessings of liberty like we should and that God has “shed His grace on us.”
Lurker – I thinking more that failing the eligibility to vote test may prove appealing for the very wealthy. You can just imagine Donald Trump (or somesuch) feigning political ignorance, reluctantly ceding his vote and consoling himself with the millions of dollars in tax savings.
November 19, 2008 @ 8:00 amAnd here I was convinced it was all ACORN’s fault.
What strikes me as interesting about the underlying focus of this post is that it seems to imply that flaws within conservatism as a movement are in no way responsible for it’s defeat.
This is ironically at odds with the idea that we are held accountable for our own actions…both morally and in the marketplace of ideas. It is gentler on the self-esteem to say the other guy cheated and it just isn’t fair and we was robbed. It is harder…but seemingly both more conservative and more constructive…to critically assess where and why your movement’s message failed to gain purchase.
If it can’t manage that…and I see little evidence in places like townhall and hotair that such critical assessments are taking place…then we progressives are going to crush you. Here, you have to imagine me banging my shoe on the table.
C’mon, people. Do better. This nation needs you to be a stronger and more cohesive voice of constructive dissent.
November 19, 2008 @ 8:41 amAll the dissent in the world will not stop the Messiah from enacting his destructive economic policies. He’ll raise taxes during a recession (does Herbert Hoover come to mind)and send our economy into a deep recession. The GITMO terrorists will be given trials in the U.S. with the ACLU to the rescue. After their release, we’ll end up fighting them on the battlefields in Afghanistan. Pro-death baby killers will be appointed judges and receive Supreme Court positions. The bogus “global warming” nonsense will further destroy our economy as the Messiah combats an invisible foe. The redistribution of wealth will begin with those who don’t pay taxes receiving stipends from the evil rich. Our military will be gutted just as Boy Clinton did when he roamed the White House in his search for impressionable interns. Our enemies will strike here or abroad in short order as Biden suggested not that long ago. Instead of using military might to deal with the thugs, the Messiah will send a battery of psychologists to meet with the perpetrators to gain understanding as to why these lads are so mad at the U.S.. Hillary will be running around the Mideast as Secretary of State trying to find a terrorist’s wife she can hug. The Dow will continue to plunge while the Messiah declares war on big business. Big business will respond by laying off workers to pay for tax increases.
The above is just a small sample of the destructiveness that the Messiah will bring to our country. We deserve it though – we elected the bozo in the first place.
November 19, 2008 @ 10:36 amIt, indeed, breaks my heart to have to so say, BUT, I believe in my heart, that the ‘SUN HAS SET on the GREAT AMERICAN EXPERIMENT, as surely as it set upon the once GREAT ROMAN EMPIRE….. and for the very reasons NO LESS A PERSON THAN THOMAS JEFFERSON PREDICTED OVER @)) YEARS AGO!
November 19, 2008 @ 12:11 pmDavid,
I appreciate the criticism and the spirit in which it’s offered. You’re right that blaming someone else doesn’t strike a particularly conservative note.
Personally, this isn’t a convenient dodge which I came to after a humiliating defeat. I was saying it months before the election. The press was campaigning for Obama. There is no question this was the case. The Post (to their credit) was noting their own unbalanced coverage throughout the election. Pew did a couple studies that demonstrated the same thing.
It’s one thing to lose a fair fight and blame the ref. It’s another thing when the ref is really, demonstrably on the other side and doesn’t call it fair. There’s nothing wrong with placing an appropriate amount of blame on the MSM. They earned it. I think genuine progressives should be a little more concerned about the fact that the fourth estate has crossed a line from reporting to campaigning almost exclusively for one side.
November 19, 2008 @ 2:28 pmI think it’s pretty common that most people who are born here don’t appreciate what they have. Honestly, I can’t even get through the National Anthem without tearing up, and when I teach my kids about American History I very often have to stop and let them read because I can’t get through it. Reading the Declaration of Independence? Forget about it. I’m openly weeping after the first sentence.
Those who fought and clawed their way to get here do truly understand what this fight is all about.
November 19, 2008 @ 5:41 pmI just want to say I stumbled on this website and it was VERY refreshing to read an entire article & reply posts without one nasty hateful word..
November 20, 2008 @ 4:21 amWe all have differences of opinion and calling each other those nasty hateful names does nothing to help the country.
To the poster that said we are only blaming the MSM and don’t see our troubles. I see it and am sad that the Republicans, when given a chance spent like drunken sailors and did not keep to their conservative roots. Had we done that, we would still be in power.
Also… About the Obama voters being uninformed.. I have to agree, when I was silly enough to try to get into a discussion with one they (ALL OF THEM) could not come up with one item that Obama had accomplished that made them want to vote for him.. They simply thought he spoke well and they liked what he was offering.. ALL of them got most or all of their news from Bill Maher???? I was dumbfounded that someone would admit that!
Thanks for this great website I will be bookmarking it and returning often! How civilized!!!