I Wish Media Would Stop Quoting the VV Straw Poll as if it Meant Something

[dballance]

I'm getting sick of seeing how Ted Cruz is so popular and one proof of that is he won the Values Voters straw poll. Well winning that straw poll is no better than winning an online poll on any site. It is statistically irrelevant.

Around 2000 motivated people assembled in DC by choice to attend a conference. They were not elected delegates or representatives of anyone. They are people who are already motivated to be at the conference and active in politics. They are by no means a valid random statistical sample from the population of GOP voters. They are an extreme evangelical faction. This presents all sorts of statistical bias in the sample. Yet I see media outlet after media outlet touting Cruz's success in the poll as if it were meaningful.

If they're too afraid of the FRC to report this accurately and call them Christian Extremists, which is what they are, then they should just not report it at all.

[blkmusclmachine]

1. Liberal Media.

[Emit]

2. He was heckled repeatedly at VV Summit

Conservative summit loves/hates Ted Cruz

WASHINGTON — Sen. Ted Cruz was greeted like a rock star Friday at a major gathering of social conservatives, exhorting the audience at the eighth annual Values Voter Summit to stand firm against President Obama's health care law.

The Texas Republican, who has become the face of opposition to the Affordable Care Act, was interrupted about a half-dozen times by protesters. And even as Cruz acknowledged their right to speak, he dismissed them as tools of the White House.

~snip~

The Republican National Committee has stepped up its outreach to voters of faith and recently hired Chad Connelly, a former chairman of the South Carolina GOP and a Southern Baptist, to help lead that effort. Mike Mears, who used to work for the Family Research Council and other conservative groups, is working with faith-based organizations, think tanks and Tea Party groups and soliciting their advice to help the RNC as it works to elect more Republicans.

The summit is also attracting notice from groups such as the Human Rights Campaign and NAACP, which say the Family Research Council and American Family Association — the event's host and one of its sponsors — have long records of anti-gay rhetoric and actions. Their coalition earlier in the week wrote a letter calling on members of Congress and other public officials to "not lend the prestige of your office" by speaking at the event.

Other groups signing that letter include the National Council of La Raza, People for the American Way, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Faithful America and GLAAD.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/10/11/ted-cruz-values-voter-social-conservatives/2965089/

And that VVS is a farce

[Warren DeMontague]

3. They still love the idea of the "all powerful values voter"

Yeah, all 12 of them.