Twisting the internal polling knife
In light of the revelation that Mitt Romney was “shell-shocked” by his loss last week, I’ve been pretty tough on the job performance of his campaign’s internal pollsters, who clearly missed the mark — resulting in costly tactical decisions down the stretch…
As if to pour salt in the Romney campaign’s gaping wound, David Axelrod tells Politico today that Team Obama’s in-house pollster was deadly accurate in his projections:
“AXELROD : “We had some solid accomplishments and proof points … We knew a lot more about the electorate than we did in 2008. We could make much more precise judgments about the attitudes of voters, about what was important to individual voters, about who was likely to participate and who wasn’t likely to participate. So we had great confidence in our numbers. I got reports every night — all the senior people did — from our analytics guys about where all these battleground states were. And they were remarkably close [to the actual result -- Joel] Benenson’s polling, within a tenth of a percentage point in the battleground states. Our individual pollsters in their individual states — incredibly close. …”
Blowback
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Pigeon holed
cmsinaz on November 13, 2012 at 7:44 AM
Monday morning quarterbacking,
Joe Scraborough was jumping up and down all week that he knew more than every other pundit who was looking thru rosey colored glasses. But essentially if we got McCain like numbers- we would have won. NOBODY expected less turnout. NOBODY
Bensonofben on November 13, 2012 at 7:57 AM
“. . .within a tenth of a percentage point in the battleground states.”
I find this very hard to believe. Essentially, he is saying that their internal polling organization is far, far superior to any other polling organization in the country.
I suspect that this may be a head-fake to cover up the fact that they rigged the elections in five or six states.
Dextrous on November 13, 2012 at 8:03 AM
Yes, we underestimated the public’s ability to ignore the conman’s rhetoric and look at his job performance. The electorate is getting dumber, no doubt about it. Notice how they’re never gloating about winning on the strength of their record?
The Count on November 13, 2012 at 8:09 AM
Conservatives gained nothing from running a wishy-washy flip flopping Rockefeller Republican.
If you were going to lose anyway – wouldn’t you have rather gone down FIGHTING with someone who was at least semi-conservative?
HondaV65 on November 13, 2012 at 8:09 AM
This.I read where Blacks in Ohio jumped to 15% of those who voted this year, way up. This despite being only 12% of the population there. Did blacks suddenly jump as a percentage of the population? No. The % of whites who bothered to vote went down. But yet this is what the Democrats were banking on. Well they played a long shot and it came in. That doesn’t make the odds for the next time any better. Long shots are long shots for a reason.
Rocks on November 13, 2012 at 8:15 AM
Sorry Honda- we would have lost with the Conservatives that did have the cojones to run. If you think Gingrich or Santorum or Bachman would have won- you are sadly mistaken. Romney was the best candidate of those that ran. The true conservatives without a checkered past sat on the sidelines. I blame them for the loss more than I blame Romney.
Bensonofben on November 13, 2012 at 8:19 AM
Indeed the count….crickets on his record just that 20 minute photo op with christie
cmsinaz on November 13, 2012 at 8:20 AM
That White House needed to conduct such intensive polling to identify key groups and what would make them come out just illustrates what a horrible failure their reign has been.
They’re admitting they’d lost the great masses of support they’d received in ’08 and needed to rely on small groups of hard-core supporters and drive up turnout among each.
They’d lost the country. THEY HAVE NO MANDATE
Or as Levin put it: The only mandate they have is to pass out contraceptives.
They had two years with a super-majority, the Press as their communications wing, and the goodwill of the electorate and they squandered it all. They got passed most of what they wanted and those policies remain overwhelmingly unpopular.
And we’re the ones who time is about to forget?
Talk about fraud, how about some support for Allen West?
http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/robbins-report/2012/nov/10/florida-vote-twist-more-ballots-voters/
The Washington Times has no problem reporting on West’s recall fight, will Hot Air continue to embargo this story?
sartana on November 13, 2012 at 8:21 AM
Of course Axelrod’s full of it. A guy that looks that much like a cross between Adolf Hitler and Rudolf Steiner’s Ahriman knows nothing but lies. He’s just daring someone to call him out on the fraud.
The way they stole Florida, they’re just begging to be caught.
http://www.parareligion.ch/2007/fs/rudolf-steiner-ahriman.jpg
sartana on November 13, 2012 at 8:25 AM
Right, look at how much better the conservative GOP Senate candidates did than Romney. Oh wait, they actually did worse. Allen, Flake, Fischer, Hoekstra, Mack, Mendel, Rehberg, Smith (and of course Akin and Mourdoch) all got fewer votes in their states than Romney. He even almost outperformed Ted Cruz.
Everybody sane understands that Perry/Noot/Santorum would have lost by a bigger margin than Romney and possibly taken the House down with them.
Jon0815 on November 13, 2012 at 8:35 AM
Berg in ND can be added to the above list as well,
Jon0815 on November 13, 2012 at 8:40 AM
Careful, Jon. Honda will yell at you until you agree with him, facts on the ground be damned.
The Count on November 13, 2012 at 8:50 AM
“War on Women” would have killed those you mentioned, just massacred the GOP.
Kermit on November 13, 2012 at 9:09 AM
When did Axelrod stop twisting facts and start being honest?
Oh…that’s right…he never did.
lynncgb on November 13, 2012 at 9:29 AM
Sounds like the Republican polling data was based on:
Read the polls in the newspapers and then say, “Nah, not that many people are going to vote for Obama” and conclude they will win.
albill on November 13, 2012 at 9:33 AM
Yep. Romney had a terribly run campaign. His team alienated much of the party faithful (at least in Ohio where I’m from), he had a terrible ground game, his ads were scattershot and not nearly as effective as Obama’s at delivering a consistent message. Now we find out that his pollsters were not using an accurate likely voter model.
One almost wonders whether Romney’s campaign team “spun” these polls in an attempt to hide from Romney how bad of a job his campaign was doing.
Outlander on November 13, 2012 at 10:53 AM
This is why should have had a True Conservative as our nominee.
This is why we need a TRUE Conservative to lead the party.
Palin 2016
ChuckTX on November 13, 2012 at 10:56 AM