New Poll Reveals Serious Liabilities for Hillary

[Jackpine Radical]

71. Whatever we do, whatever decisions we make,

we need the best possible information upon which to base them. It's all too easy to pump yourself up on wish-fulfilling delusions, and distorted information such as this article seeks to distribute is potentially destructive in its effects. As liberals, we both seek knowledge and try to increase the awareness of others about what we learn. Creating half-truths and unfounded claims is not what we are about.

I'm a populist Progressive (in the old Wisconsin LaFollette tradition), so my politics are obvious. The reported results warmed my cockles (whatever the hell cockles are).

Until certain individuals (to whom I am grateful) rubbed my nose in the actual nature of the poll and its questions.

As it turns out, the poll is, if not exactly a push poll, one in which certain messages are being tested for the reactions they elicit from the public. As I said in a post above, I have no objection to--would in fact encourage--the conducting of polls like this, but for specific research purposes such as testing messages and frames; NOT as fodder for deceptive propaganda.

I have no idea whom to point the finger at--I haven't seen a press release from the pollster--or the writer for grossly (perhaps ignorantly) mischaracterizing the nature of the poll, but it is utterly wrong to publish the results of what essentially appears to be a messaging test under the pretense that it is actually a measure of public opinion. It is the other side whose edifices are built on foundations of lies, not ours. Whatever short-term benefit may ensue from the (small) media splash is not worth the irreparable damage we do to the integrity of our own foundations.