IF you planned a corporate takeover of the country, wouldn't you target pollsters as well as media?

[mod mom]

Just saying...most of us here believe that there has been a concerted effort by corporate elite/GOP/shadow government (whatever you want to call them) to gain control of the message by controlling the MSM (thanks Bill Clinton for Telecom Act of '96). They have politicized the justice department and put zealots on the SCOTUS. They have deposed military leaders/national security employees who stood up against their agenda. They have started unnecessary wars that brought great profit to themselves and their friends They have gone after politicians (think Gov Don Siegelman) who threatened them. They have corrupted our election system putting in place machines to count the vote with proprietary source code that has been shown to be inaccurate, unreliable and subject to tampering (google GAO Report on Electronic Voting or Ohio's Everest Report, if you still doubt this), and passed draconian voter ID laws although there is not evidence it is necessary. .

Do you really think that the folks behind this would NOT attempt to skew data in polls to benefit candidates they support? I'm wondering if folks here, who know Sen Obama is building a base of young voters that will serve our party for years to come, and who do not use land lines and are not considered part of the polling base since many are newly registered, think the polls are skewed to help corporate candidates appear stronger than they actually are?

PS I am working with former Republicans on the Obama campaign but I highly doubt there are many former Dems that have crossed over to work with McCain.

[Captain Hilts]

1. Pollsters are not cohesive or cooperative entities. They compete with each other and

they know when they're being gamed.

The polling process, done correctly and honestly, is a surprisingy scientific one.

[mod mom]

2. Can you explain Fritz Wenzel (Zogby Spokesperson)?

Fritz Wenzel (formerly of T.Blade + Coingate fame) Now Working for Zogby


Weird...He allegedly suppresses Coingate story prior to the '04 Election in Ohio and is now working for Zogby. What's up with this?


Saving Ohio

Did a reporter with GOP ties suppress a story that could have cost Bush the White House?

By Bill Frogameni

Pages 1 2


October 6, 2005 | In April 2005, the Blade newspaper of Toledo, Ohio, began publishing a remarkable series of articles about a well-connected Republican donor, Tom Noe, chair of the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign for Lucas County, which encompasses Toledo. The Blade, which had won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting in 2004, discovered that Noe, a Toledo coin dealer, was investing $50 million for the state through the novel practice of coin speculation: buying and selling rare coins to turn a profit. Noe, the Blade revealed, could not account for $10 million to $13 million in the fund.

The paper also divulged that Noe had been placed under federal investigation for allegedly laundering money -- perhaps state money -- to the Bush campaign. The Blade's initial reports on Noe started a chain reaction of related scandals for Ohio's dominant Republicans. Recently, Gov. Bob Taft pleaded no contest to accepting several gifts from influence peddlers -- including Noe -- without reporting them, as law requires. Noe is currently the subject of 13 investigations.

In November 2004, Lucas County was among the most hotly contested areas in the most hotly contested state. Kerry won the county by 45,000 votes, but George W. Bush went on to win Ohio by less than 120,000 votes, which swung the election for him.


But Bush's reelection may have been made possible by a Blade reporter with close ties to the Republican Party who reportedly knew about Noe's potential campaign violations in early 2004 but suppressed the story.

According to several knowledgeable sources, the Blade's chief political columnist, Fritz Wenzel, was told of Noe's potential campaign violations as early as January 2004. But according to Blade editors, Wenzel never gave the paper the all-important tip in early 2004.



-SNIP
http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/10/06/ohio/index.html



Zogby International spokesman Fritz Wenzel said that was the case in July when Syracuse Post-Standard reporter Glenn Coin wrote a story about Vice President Cheney’s visit to Utica for a fundraiser for Meier. Wenzel was quoted extensively in the article.

http://www.zogby.com/soundbites/ReadClips.dbm?ID=13587



However, as it turns out, both Wenzel and his son had personal relationships with the Noes, who even attended the son's wedding.

In fact, in March 2004, a couple of months after Wenzel got the tip, his son was elected to the Lucas County Republican Central Committee, and from April 15, 2005, to the end of May 2005, Wenzel's son was on the payroll of the Ohio Republican Party.

http://www.counterpunch.org/pringle06092006.html