Wastler gets worried that a "few" can influence the many. He's been worried for a long time!

And he's one of the "few"...

-Derek Java

I don't understand the media. They ask people to participate in a poll, but get mad when poll outcomes do not match their preconceived notions?

It's like Hannity complaining about Paul winning the phone texting polls after the debates on Faux News. wtf? If you don't want people to vote then don't have a competition. If Guiliani/Romney/Thompson supporters can't be bothered to text in (or perhaps don't have cell phones or don't know how to text) don't be surprised at poll results.

And why doesn't Romney pay people to vote on websites (as he gets them to vote for him in straw polls)? Would that give too much legitimacy to Dr. Paul?

If they think Ron Paul supporters are "bad," they should see what the Colbert Nation can do.

"If they think Ron Paul supporters are "bad," they should see what the Colbert Nation can do."

True - when Ron Paul has a bridge in Hungary named after him, then I will start worrying (partly because he has to be dead...)

We should probably keep an eye on the various online presidential polls and see if any of them allow an "Other - Please Specify" write in spot, so they can be flooded for Stephen, forcing him into the race, because obviously he is not going to run otherwise. *Or is he?*

Ron Paul did win that debate, based upon his answer to just the one question about going to war without Congress' approval. He was the ONLY one who thought refering to the Constitution was a good idea. Maybe lots of others felt the same way, and it wasn't just committed Paul supporters voting for him.

Online polls only serve to drive traffic to a site. It is not surprising, however, that powerful people in the media think they can take a "show of hands" with an online poll. They have demonstrated ad nauseam that they do not understand statistics and the scientific method.

Ron Paul supporters are very wired in, a high percentage are young (under 35) and they use their techno-savvy to vote for Ron Paul.

So, I shall have to quote the young: Suck it, online polls.

I never understand why anyone puts up those polls. You'll never get an honest reading of the audience, especially on heated issues, because online populations are terribly honest that way. It's more of a my-guy's-bigger game - the only thing that matters is that their guy win. Nobody cares if it's real or not. The whole thing screams pointlessness.

I meant "online populations aren't terribly honest that way".

Damn keyboard gremlins.

is that if the poll had shown Giuliromney or whoever winning decisively, then that would be presumed to be an accurate "show of hands." It's just when the result is so patently out-of-step with MSM expectations that the validity of the poll itself is questioned.

This undermines every political poll that CNBC runs, as it can be assumed that the only ones we will be permitted to see will be those that fit into the accepted narrative.

Hilarious. Wastler expects a volunteer Internet poll to yield "a show of hands" on who won the debate. Does he also believe Firefly is the Best TV Show of All-Time? At least Harwood understands the part that makes this blunder valuable fodder for political discourse. So why is Wastler the one in charge?

The academic and professional communities, i.e., the American Association for Public Opinion Research, will tell the story of Wastler's whine again and again (between guffaws) at their next meeting. Watch for this example to show up in 2008's textbooks for college sophomores, immortalized as the reason such "shot in the dark" Internet polls should not be taken seriously.

When they took down an almost identical poll for who won their hosted Dem debate. Kucinich was easily voted the winner in that poll but ABC took it down once they saw the candidate they didn't like winning handily and then re-posted it...Only for Kucinich supporters to vote for him again! ABC didn't offer an explanation as to why though as CNBC did. To ABC, you'd never know Kucinich participated in the debate, much less appeared on stage. It's all such a spoon-fed sham, maybe in the future we'll learn of on-the-fly debate editing designed to permanently eliminate those pesky candidates the networks don't anoint.

This is really about the cheapening of American news. They don't want to spend money on real polls, so they put polls up on their web sites that cost them virtually nothing and trumpet the results as meaningful, throwing in the "unscientific" qualifier in small print. It's frightening that anybody in a respected news outfit would take these things seriously enough to be offended when the results are so obviously wrong that they can't present them as facts. They should NEVER be using these polls as anything more than meaningless entertainment.

Here is something I got from Digg. Where Paul spam is prevalent.

Paul introduced The Sanctity of Life Act of 2005, a bill that would have defined human life to begin at conception, and removed challenges to prohibitions on abortion from federal court jurisdiction.

Defining embryos and fetuses as persons would make abortion murder and outlaw fetal stem cell research and some contraception and fertility treatments.

In 2005, Paul introduced the We the People Act, which would have removed "any claim based upon the right of privacy, including any such claim related to any issue of ... reproduction" from the jurisdiction of federal courts. If made law, either of these acts would allow states to PROHIBIT ABORTION.

Ron Paul's bill to provide that human life shall be deemed to exist from conception.

http://tinyurl.com/yuo3ta

Ron Paul's bill to prohibit any Federal official from expending any Federal funds for any population control or population planning program or any family planning activity.

http://tinyurl.com/2h6y7w

Ron Paul's bill to limit the jurisdiction of the Federal courts, and for other purposes.

http://tinyurl.com/2sts73

Ron Paul was the only member of congress to vote against a bill (HR 180) to prohibit spending federal tax dollars on companies doing business with genocidal warlords in Darfur.

http://tinyurl.com/2cazda

Ron Paul voted against establishing Bill HR 5252 Amendment 987(Jun 2006)[169], which would have legally protected network neutrality.

http://tinyurl.com/27xg44

Ron Paul failed to vote against the FISA amendment that legalized warrantless wiretapping of US citizens.

http://tinyurl.com/2p3t65

Ron Paul believes that all federal taxation should be eliminated.

http://tinyurl.com/yuvdk2

Ron Paul wants to eliminate the federal reserve and replace the U.S. dollar with a currency based on the gold standard.

http://tinyurl.com/2dhx28

Ron Paul wants to amend the constitution to eliminate birthright citizenship.

http://tinyurl.com/2gh52n

Ron Paul wants to end US membership in the UN

http://tinyurl.com/yoajxb

Ron Paul wants to build a 700 mile wall between the U.S and Mexico.

http://tinyurl.com/2yunzn

Ron Paul opposes universal health care.

Ron Paul is a fundamentalist born-again Christian who believes there is a war on Christmas being waged by the secular left.

Ron Paul supporters seem to be composed largely of people who oppose the war in Iraq, but for some reason believe they have no choice but to support a Republican over any Democrat (in addition to the smaller number of hard-core true believers). These casual supporters need to be aware that the vast majority of his views are bizarre and extreme.

Ron Paul is the candidate backed by the White Supremacists...

http://tinyurl.com/36k9rw

... to the point they even arranged to have supporters bussed to the straw polls in Iowa...

http://tinyurl.com/32kwtb

...and extensively cover anything Ron Paul, see e.g....

http://tinyurl.com/2mfyvq

Ron Paul has reciprocated the love from the White Supremacy groups by giving interviews to David Duke.

http://tinyurl.com/2jqhan

The 9/11 Truth movement also endorse Ron Paul, see e.g....

http://tinyurl.com/399wqb

Ron Paul supporters seem to think that SPAMMING DIGG.COM wins elections. Do you want to be lumped in with such a dumb group of people?

Ron Paul authored a newsletter in which he made the following racist statements (among many others):

RP Quote: "If you have ever been robbed by a black teen-aged male, you know how unbelievably fleet-footed they can be."

RP Quote: "Opinion polls consistently show that only about 5 percent of blacks have sensible political opinions"

RP Quote: "Given the inefficiencies of what D.C. laughingly calls the "criminal justice system," I think we can safely assume that 95 percent of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal"

RP Quote: "we are constantly told that it is evil to be afraid of black men, it is hardly irrational. Black men commit murders, rapes, robberies, muggings and burglaries all out of proportion to their numbers."

RP Quote: "We don't think a child of 13 should be held responsible as a man of 23. That's true for most people, but black males age 13 who have been raised on the streets and who have joined criminal gangs are as big, strong, tough, scary and culpable as any adult and should be treated as such."

RP Quote: "What else do we need to know about the political establishment than that it refuses to discuss the crimes that terrify Americans on grounds that doing so is racist? Why isn't that true of complex embezzling, which is 100 percent white and Asian?"

He wants to ban abortion, legalise the teaching of creationism and remove the seperation between church and state. His politics stink of Christian fundamentalism and to believe otherwise is a fantasy.

A vote for Ron Paul endorses irrationality, dishonesty, bigotry, racism, fundamentalism, obscurationism and an incredibly retrograde and backwards worldview. If you vote for Ron Paul, you are voting for these things. You don't get to pick and choose and claim that your vote endorses a "balanced budget" and not "a 19th century style deportation project estimated to cause over a hundred thousand deaths".

JOIN THE RON PAUL ANTI-SPAM ARMY! COPY AND PASTE THIS ENTIRE POST INTO ALL RON PAUL STORIES! IT DRIVES THE SPAMMERS NUTS! BURY DOWN RON PAUL ARTICLES! TAKE A STAND AGAINST RON PAUL AND HIS ARMY OF SPAMMERS IN THERE NEVERENDING QUEST TO RUIN DIGG!LET THEM KNOW WE'RE NOT GOING TO PUT UP WITH THEM OR THEIR SPAMMING TACTICS ANYMORE ! TAKE BACK DIGG FROM THE SPAMMERS !