i'll tell you david, where the landslide is...

my response to david brooks' column in today's (or maybe yesterday's) ny times, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/opinion/05brooks.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

all this talk about polls this and polls that and the polls say this and why don't the polls say that. the polls said hillary was going to take the crown in iowa's caucus that kicked off the primary season, while obama was a shoe-in for the new hampshire primary a few weeks later. wrong, and wrong again. the polls said obama was closing in pennsylvania, and we lost by double digits, that hillary was going to kill us in indiana, and only won by .6 of a point.

and still, pollsters and the main stream media talk about polls as though they mean something, or anything at all. david brooks today asks why obama isn't killing mccain in the polls and then goes on to answer it (quite thoughtfully and with interesting thoughts on a matter that is as close to meaningless as anything else).

i've never been polled, never received a single call in all my years as a registered voter. i don't even know anyone who's ever been polled. i do know that pollsters don't call cell phones, and i don't know anyone born past 1974 who has anything but a cell phone. so, who exactly is getting polled and what exactly are the pollsters asking when they poll whoever it is they're calling?

my theories are as follows: landlines get the calls, only older and simply old people answer landlines. the questions pollsters ask are phrased in such a way that they get the answers they crave. those craved answers are whatever it is the main stream media needs to hear to keep whatever story it is they wish to keep telling.

in the case at hand, the story they wish to tell is that obama and mccain are in a dead heat. cuz it's a good story that, really, no one can believe. and the reason no one can believe it's true is because there's no way it's true. so david, i'll tell you where the landslide is. it's right under your nose, but you can't see it because you don't want to see it, because to see it would ruin your story and your column and your paper's sales. but regardless of your willingness to see the truth or write the truth, believe me when i write the truth that obama is going to kick mccain's ass this november, regardless of the predictions of your silly little pollster's games.