{"id":35710,"date":"2013-04-11T12:15:46","date_gmt":"2013-04-11T17:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=35710"},"modified":"2013-09-13T07:51:44","modified_gmt":"2013-09-13T12:51:44","slug":"the-emperors-new-polls-the-client-is-obviously-guilty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=35710","title":{"rendered":"The Emperor’s New Polls: “Your Client Is Obviously Guilty!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Wry Wing Politics<\/em>” is one of the painfully small group of Twin Cities leftybloggers who don’t expressly deserve to be under police surveillance.<\/p>\n

But that doesn’t mean WWP<\/em>\u00a0and its author, Joe Loveland, know how to take apart a complex issue, or dig beneath the hood of a lefty propaganda meme, better than the babbling bobbleheads at\u00a0Minnesota Progressive Project<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Vide\u00a0<\/em>this piece about the polling claiming to show Minnesotans and Americans are lock-step in favor of universal background checks<\/a>. \u00a0Loveland thinks the polls show it’s not even a debate anymore.<\/p>\n

And on the surface – as in, the layer that a dust-rag and a spritz of Pledge removes – it looks like he might be onto something:<\/p>\n

In politics, presidential candidates who win the support of over 60% of Americans are said to have won overwhelming \u201clandslide\u201d victories. Harding\u2019s 60.3% in 1920. FDR\u2019s 60.8% in 1936. Johnson\u2019s 61.1% in 1964. and Nixon\u2019s 60.7% in 1972. Landslides!<\/p>\n

It is so difficult to get 60% of Americans to agree on politics, that such \u201clandslide victories\u201d are considered highly unusual indications of a historically overwhelming level of public sentiment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So far, so good. \u00a0When Americans in all their infinite variety consider all the different issues and perceptions and angles that go into electing a president, a landslide like Reagan’s in 1984 (which, at\u00a058.77%, is mighty close to 60%) is pretty much a mandate.<\/p>\n

That’s with what should be a complex decision, like a Presidential election. \u00a0Now, you can look at the results of the past two elections and wonder if voters really\u00a0do<\/em>\u00a0put all that much thought into elections, but let’s have some faith in The People and assume that there’s a certain amount of reasoning and, for most people, at least a week or two of thought that goes into elections.<\/p>\n

But a public opinion poll?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In Minnesota right now, Minnesotans of all walks of life, including Republicans, Independents, gun owners and Greater Minnesota citizens, are giving a landslide victory to gun background checks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Loveland cites the\u00a0Strib\u00a0<\/em>“Minnesota Poll”, which I’ll borrow here:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Pilfered without permission from “Wry Wing Politics”, but with a link back included. Go ahead. Click it. Click the picture. You know you want to.<\/p><\/div>\n

Now, we’ve gone over this in the past; through most of its history, the “Minnesota Poll” has been a bald-faced DFL propaganda organ<\/a>, so any conservative is going to distrust but verify their results.<\/p>\n

However, I think there’s reason to believe they cleaned up their act in 2012 – the next election will be an interesting one. \u00a0So I’m not\u00a0as\u00a0<\/em>inclined to reject the poll\u00a0because\u00a0<\/em>it’s the Minnesota Poll as I used to be. \u00a0But they say “trust but verify”, and so I shall:<\/p>\n

Loveland thinks he’s closing in for the kill:<\/p>\n

The Minnesota Republicans\u2019 point person on this issue, State Representative Tony Cornish (R-Vernon Center) shrugs off this Star Tribune Minnesota Poll with a cavalier \u201cnobody really believes those polls.\u201d<\/p>\n