More bad "focus group" news

[mrgorth]

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/7079353.htm

This is the kind of person that scares me:

"Grunklee said he was 70 percent committed to Bush. But he said Dean's record "would be a concern for me. The liberalness, the moral issues, the homosexual issues - that turns me right off." (Grunklee is the kind of voter who is highly prized by the Bush campaign, a populist who can be persuaded on social conservative issues.)"

Yeah, Dean has "moral issues" as opposed to a person that starts a war for oil.:eyes: IMO, if there was a way to bring some of these people over we wouldn't have to worry about the "pull any lever" crowd.

[NuckinFutz]

1. Don't panic on this one.

They only polled 12 people.

[in_cog_ni_to]

5. Ya, 12 IGNORANT people. n/t

[denverbill]

2. Actually, that's the kind of person Dean wants.

Look at what happened in Vermont. Dean was trailing badly in his bid for governor after voting for the civil unions law, exactly because guys like this don't understand the issue. Dean was able to turn it around and convinced the majority of voters that a civil union law was the right thing to do.

The guy claims to know Dean is liberal, but he has no idea why. When he finally looks at the record and sees Dean balanced the budget and cut taxes, the guy may finally realize that the 'liberal' label is all right-wing hype.

[BurtWorm]

3. I hate this kind of reporting.

It's so fucking lazy. Don't report on what the candidate says or thinks or has done. Just report on what Joe Schmuck in a focus group opines about him.

:eyes:

PS: It is important or, at least, interesting to know how a candidate is perceived by ill-informed members of the public. But watch how this becomes the MO of the media at large, focusing on swinging voters and high concept problems they have with the candidates.

[salin]

4. like this voter was going to vote for any democratic candidate.

Those who are already blinded are likely to stay that way for quite some time. If I am more prone to fall for the religiousright/neoconright spew that says that homosexual issues are FAR MORE IMPORTANT than feeding my family (re: jobs), then I am a fool. And fools can only be reached, and become less foolish, when they come (on their own) to realize that the bacon on the table is a little more important that the rwing created image/threat of the 'homosexual agenda'. Til then - thats a vote that no democratic candidate will ever get.

[WatchWhatISay]

6. I saw Peter Hart running this focus group on C-Span last night

And it was really pathetic. His questions were leading, and the people in the group were uninformed to the point that I bet most of them would describe themselves as apolitical. You know, the kind that do their civic duty every four years by tuning into CNN for a couple of days before the election so they can "find out what the candidates stand for". Hardly a thinking person in the bunch. And Peter Hart seemed to realize this and talked down to them.

[Girlfriday]

7. Wasn't anyone happy with Gail?

She is registered Repuke and said she will not vote for one again for a long, long time. I think there are plenty of "Gails" out there.