Working the Refs: Axelrod Attacks Gallup; Romney Slams Pro-Obama Media Bias

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Joel Gehrke at the Washington Examiner reports:

“Gallup is saddled with some methodological problems,” [Obama adviser David] Axelrod tweeted today. He also directed Twitterati to a National Journal piece arguing that Gallup polls showing Romney in the lead “has a sample that looks much more like the electorate in 2010 than the voting population that is likely to turn out in 2012.”

Mitt Romney was interviewed by Larry O’Connor, who mentioned that outfits like ThinkProgress and Media Matters are coordinating messages in the mainstream media:

“There will be an effort by the, quote, vast left-wing conspiracy to work together to put out their message and to attack me. They’re going to do everything they can to divert from the message people care about, which is a growing economy that creates more jobs and rising incomes. That’s what people care about. . . .
“Many in the media are inclined to do the president’s bidding and I know that’s an uphill battle we fight with the media generally.”

Here’s video of the interview:

Also, heres’s the RNC’s latest anti-Obama ad:

67 comments

  1. Unfortunately for Axelrod and Obama, Fox News Polls and Rasmussen also show the little Honey Prince trailing Romney in their polls as well. The only one showing Obama leading is CNN. 

  2. But he didn’t object to the CNN poll showing Obama up 9% only after weighting the sample to be half again as Democratic as the 2008 electorate.

    Axlerod is going to have to do a lot of this spinning this year.  Most of the polling firms do most of their business in between elections, for business and marketing projects, and getting it right is important for them.  CNN used to use Gallup but fired the most respected polling firm in the world to hire an old Clinton crony.

    It’s insane to believe Obama will attract the kind of support he did in 2008 when he could run as a post-partisan uniter instead of a hard-left divider and owner of failed policies across the board.  

  3. Whistling past the graveyard? How do you screw up the sampling of registered voters?
    I’d like to see the phrase “Vast Left Wing Conspiracy” used more often as in every chance we get. The Bolsheviks have gotten a lot of mileage out of Vast Right Wing Conspiracy and we don’t even have one. Pity it was a really good idea when Hillary proposed it.

  4.  I read Ace’s (or one of the cob-loggers?) break-out of that. Interesting – I hadn’t known about how heavily they weighted the younger voters they interviewed.

  8.  Ed Morrissey at Hot Air routinely vivisects the polls, and the weighting goes beyond age.  It’s like Lord Haw Haw is running the polls for the Lame Stream Media.

  9. It’s a bad idea.  The dog meat eating thing can be spun as showing that Obama had to eat the dog meat — third world child of the streets.  Class warfare AND race/third world card in one blow.

  10. He probably won’t the RANGE of support, but Obama still attracts people.  I was sharply reminded of that today, when I noticed that my freshly arrived next-door neighbor has a car (or has a friend with a car) sporting a brand new Obama 2012 bumper sticker. 

    I nearly puked.  I did gag.

    But I am not seeing the number of signs supporting Obama that I did in 2008.  Which will mean fewer spray painted hammer and sickles around town.

  11.  Except that they’re not subtle about it. The well-placed knife takes a moment to declare itself, as Dorothy Dunnet said; I tend to think of the Romney team as using blunt instruments.

    Of course, that’s an improvement on Axelrod, who lately only seems to be able to use a feather pillow.

    I love animals, and the story about the dog makes me shake my head, but it seems that the dog survived the experience (and given that it was an Irish Setter – an Irish joke perpetrated upon an unsuspecting world – I’m somehow unsurprised) none the worse for wear, I shall let it pass. It would only be relevant if I were at all ambivalent about voting ABO.

  12. One doesn’t “screw up” the sampling, AW.  One deliberately skews the weighting.

    In the real world, that’s called “lying”.  Within the circle of pollsters, it’s known as “good facts.”

    (I keed, I keed!  I just wanted to highlight the propaganda angle.)

  13. No, it brings up Obama’s Muslim upbringing.

    BTW, Santorum lost, get over it.  It’s clear you’re going to be crying about it until November.  

  14.  Hey I love Irish Setters, they’re the only dog I know about that will smile at you, which is scary at first because they do it by showing their teeth. If Mitt has a Setter, he can’t be too bad.

  15. Some of the skews in demographics and partisan ID are hard to accept as coincidental.

    More importantly: It’s early.

    A poll done more than six months ahead of an election doesn’t tell you anything very useful, for the simple reason that we haven’t had a campaign yet. We have no idea what is going to transpire in the next six months. If you think back to 2008, John McCain was actually leading Obama in September, before the debates and before the market crash.

  16. Muslims won’t even walk on the same side of the street as a dog (literally); they aren’t going to eat one.

    BTW, I think your guy is setting himself up for more nastiness than he necessarily should and do not like the direction this general is already starting to turn, get over it.

  18. How is it any different than letting a dog hang its head out the window?

    I’m a dog lover too, but I fail to see how this is some sort of cruelty. 

    It’s clear the Democrats were going to make it the cornerstone of their campaign, but Obama should have thought of that before he ate a dog.

  20. Why? Because I’m not very happy with the way things are shaping up?

    That I’m not thrilled at what looks like my voting choice in Nov.?

    Or that I’m pointing out that getting into these sort of back and forths with Democrats are always unproductive and usually a losing proposition?  Million other things to talk about right now: war in Afghanistan, the Buffet Rule, this GSA thing is huge, and there’s still F&F out there…oh, and the price of gas and food is always one to talk about.

    But no, rather than go around the dog on the roof poke, we get “well Obama eats dogs” (and this will not work well in the long run).

    So, ok, yay we’re winning, rah rah rah; Barry’s going down hard, new conservative golden age on the way!  Is that better?

  24. Well, at the risk of being labelled a concern troll by you again, it’s the optics of it: most workaday people would choose to allow the dog to ride in the car with them (hanging their heads out the window is still riding in the car rather than strapped in a carrier on the roof).  Dogs, while not people, are considered by most to be worthy of a place in the car, so this does come across as a bit cold.

    The dog eating thing is a non-starter because it can be explained away as a non-choice circumstance of growing up in a different country; thus the optics will not be that bad.  If he still ate dog that would be an issue, but Americans pride themselves on being understanding and kind — having to eat a dog in a foreign country could be spun so as to pick up sympathy points.

    Which leads me to guess that the reason Axelrod is hitting on this is for that very reason, to also to keep more damaging things out of the news, and to test the waters as to what sort of reactions they can get from the opposition prior to the general.  Team Axel sets the traps, puts out a nice piece of tasty bait and sees if the GOP will bite — so far they haven’t been wrong.

  25. The dog thing happened because there was no room in the car.  So they strapped the carrier to the roof behind a wind break.  Not the best plan, but it was probably thirty years ago.  We give more slack to murderers over that time frame.  

    But you know something, I spent a lot of time in Asia, but I never ate dog.  

  26.  Twitter was ablaze with the dog recipe thing tonight.  Treacher was on fire, amongst many others.

    “Our guy gives dogs a ride on top of the car, your guy eats them.”

    “Look, you guys decided a dog on a car was an issue.  Okay, let’s talk about dogs.”

  27.  Ann Romney claims the dog loved it – would get excited when he saw the crate which only meant he was riding on top.

    As a kid, I always wanted to ride on the top level of the double-decker buses.  My cousin wouldn’t, because there was no driver up there.

  28.  Mom, Dad, FIVE kids.  There was no room for the dog.  It was on top or in a kennel.  They took him with them, and he loved it.

    Obama would have cooked him.

  30. Look in the mirror, Clyde.

    PW is one of the regulars at this joint and we don’t take kindly to some out of towner coming in to this here Tiki Bar and messing with one of people.

  34. Actually, Stanley Coren wrote about dog breed affiliation was correlated to personality and mentioned the presidential dogs (and also those presidents who didn’t have dogs). 

    Clinton and Truman didn’t fare so well; in fact, most of the presidents rank in the category of high dominance, moderate-low trust, moderate-low extroversion category…and Nixon’s favorite breed was the Irish Setter (lovely dogs, ruined by the showring mentally and physically, good upland pointers if you can find somebody who breeds field lines…and not the only dog that “grins” at  you…Samoyeds actually do a better job of it).

    Just Cliff Clavening this a.m.

  35. I’ve got the same number of people in the family, and  the dogs ride in the car — because I take a big gas guzzler for trips of that sort, so everybody fits.
    And my dogs are by my own admission, working animals, not pets.  Come on.  
    This is one of the traps they’ve set — people rush to make this claim in defense of Romney and in turn will get branded as just as cold (that’s what the Dems are after).
    Neither GOP/conservatives, nor Romney should be falling for this one.

  37. Don’t play identity politics with Dems.

    GSA, F&F, immigration, war (pick one), gas prices…oh forget it….

  38. Santorum has not lost yet.  And we’re not crying.  We’re mildly annoyed. You really don’t understand the people you’re dealing with.

     We’re also pointing out that 1. No Mitt wasn’t ‘most electable’  2. He’s a moderate RINO or LUZER. Same thing.

  39.  And he sunk like a rock because he “suspended his campaign”, which everybody with a brain knew was nothing but political grandstanding, and they resented it. Then he came out in favor of the bailouts, which cost him a lot of the base Palin had helped him win back.

    And then let’s not forget the constant harping about “my beloved friend, Senator Kennedy”, and “we need to reach across the aisle to get things done for the American people”.

    Then he put Palin on a leash, and though he couldn’t quite find a muzzle sufficient for her, he did manage to minimize her impact, probably at the urging not only of “RINOS” but probably a good many of his “beloved friend” from “across the aisle”.

    It’s no surprise that he lost, the wonder is he didn’t lose by a hell of a lot more.

  41. Come on PW when the hell was Obama ever a “third world child of the streets”. This is a guy who’s had every advantage in life just handed over to him, including his Harvard education. Do you think that guy ever wanted for anything in his life?

    Even when he lived in Indonesia, I bet he never saw a hard day in his life. And by the way, in some parts of the world, dog, cat, and/or horse meat meat is a delicacy. There are even some people that eat monkey brains. They have the monkey restrained and then bust his head open while he squeals in agony. Sickening, but true.

  42.   @Pathfinder’s wife  
     
    Santorum has not lost yet.

      Maybe somebody should tell him that. You know, since he’s suspended his campaign and all. Just ahead of the Pennsylvania primary, no less. Yes, it’s over.

  44.  Plus, they cared enough about the dog to take it with them instead of leaving it with a dog-sitter he didn’t know or relate to, or at a shelter, where it might have been scared to death and lonely, thinking he had been abandoned.

  46. That is what they are going to play it as.  A person who does a bit of thinking would say “no way is this guy a street kid”, but his base and some others will fall for it.  They bought into this the last time, and for many this will not change.

    And yes, this can be explained away as different strokes for different folks — that’s just it: it can be explained away relatively easily.

    GSA hearings, the war, gas prices…stay on target! Don’t play identity politics with Dems! Why is this such a hard thing?

  48.  Ed Morrissey makes the same point.  It’s akin to using up your ammo while the enemy is way out of range. 

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