A Lie Repeated Often Enough

Once again, the local radio rag started out a story on McCain’s appearance in Bensalem with “Despite a double digit lead by the Obama campaign …”  Well, I’ve already been telling folks that McCain’s internal polling shows it within 2 points.  Now we also know that Obama’s internal polling is showing the same thing.  No wonder Ed Rendell is nervous.

This is psychological warfare — meant to disillusion McCain supporters, and supress turnout for McCain.  If it’s a double digit race, why bother right?  Except it’s not.  If I know what the internal polling says, you can bet the media does too.  But reporting that wouldn’t help Obama.

5 thoughts on “A Lie Repeated Often Enough”

  1. I don’t think it’s as simple as that. Saying Obama has a massive lead could make Obama voters think they don’t need to show up.

  2. Last night I watched the first part of Lou Dobbs on CNN. Dana Bash was reporting and:

    A. Repeating the lie that McCain is pulling out of Colorado.

    B. Said at one point “Ed Rendell says that he’s a little nervous about the fact that the polls may be tighter than they looked at least in a lot of these public polls that show that there is a very, very, very wide gap here”

    Dobbs was like, “Well, is that a very, very wide gap or is Ed Rendell so nervous that he wants them back campaigning because internal polls show that it’s closer?”

    He’s not afraid to call his fellow CNN people out and though she didn’t say anything in response to him for nearly two seconds and them stammered a little, she responded:

    Believe it or not, it’s both. There is a wide gap. But I think the concern is that internal polls and frankly, there’s concern that the polls aren’t necessarily showing the reality here, particularly in western Pennsylvania. You talk to some McCain aides and others in the state and they say that the fact of the matter is that people in the state may not necessarily be telling pollsters the reality of how they’re going to vote or maybe how they’re not going to vote.

  3. I think it’s closer than the media polls are saying. That’s not to say that things won’t go Obama’s way on election day, but I don’t think the game is over.

  4. I have another question.

    The Brady Bunch and their ilk invariably refer to the Heller decision as “a narrow 5-4 majority.”

    I’m no mathematician, but 5 of 9 is 55.55 (repeating) percent–call it 55.6%, and 4 of 9 is 44.44 (repeating) percent–call it 44.4%. In other words, SCOTUS agreed, by a margin of over 11%, to strike down D.C.’s handgun ban.

    Now, we hear triumphant cries about Obama’s “commanding, double digit lead.”

    How is over 11.1% a “narrow majority,” but a (supposed) 10% lead “commanding”?

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