purge: skeptical reporters tossed off Obama plane

[franksolich]

http://www.drudgereport.com/flashopp.htm

Oh my.

Why does this not surprise me?

PURGE: SKEPTICAL REPORTERS TOSSED OFF OBAMA PLANE
Fri Oct 31 2008 08:39:55 ET

**Exclusive**

The Obama campaign has decided to heave out three newspapers from its plane for the final days of its blitz across battleground states -- and all three endorsed Sen. John McCain for president!

The NY POST, WASHINGTON TIMES and DALLAS MORNING NEWS have all been told to move out by Sunday to make room for network bigwigs -- and possibly for the inclusion of reporters from two black magazines, ESSENCE and JET, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

Despite pleas from top editors of the three newspapers that have covered the campaign for months at extraordinary cost, the Obama campaign says their reporters -- and possibly others -- will have to vacate their coveted seats so more power players can document the final days of Sen. Barack Obama's historic campaign to become the first black American president.

MORE

Some told the DRUDGE REPORT that the reporters are being ousted to bring on documentary film-makers to record the final days; others expect to see on board more sympathetic members of the media, including the NY TIMES' Maureen Dowd, who once complained that she was barred from McCain's Straight Talk Express airplane.

After a week of quiet but desperate behind-the-scenes negotiations, the reporters of the three papers heard last night that they were definitely off for the final swing. They are already planning how to cover the final days by flying commercial or driving from event to event.

Developing...

[Wretched Excess]

this is a preview of the obamese definitions of hope, healing, and unity.

[DumbAss Tanker]

I saw a very encouraging thing on Fox this morning, apparently through some form of exit polling on early voters in Florida, although the Dems significantly outnumbered GOP early voters, the vote (as exit-polled) has been substantially in John McCain's favor.

[Wretched Excess]

and if you like this sort of heavy handedness, just wait until he has the awesome power of the federal government at his command.  I think this answers the question about his real stand on the fairness doctrine.

[BlueStateSaint]

I got this from Drudge.  I'm only including the first two paragraphs here.

PURGE: SKEPTICAL REPORTERS TOSSED OFF OBAMA PLANE
Fri Oct 31 2008 08:39:55 ET

NY POST, DALLAS MORNING NEWS, WASHINGTON TIMES TOLD TO GET OUT... ALL 3 ENDORSED MCCAIN

**Exclusive**

The Obama campaign has decided to heave out three newspapers from its plane for the final days of its blitz across battleground states -- and all three endorsed Sen. John McCain for president!

The NY POST, WASHINGTON TIMES and DALLAS MORNING NEWS have all been told to move out by Sunday to make room for network bigwigs -- and possibly for the inclusion of reporters from two black magazines, ESSENCE and JET, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

The rest is at:

http://www.drudgereport.com/flashopp.htm

The link will probably go bad soon, so get a look early.

This is the kind of administration he'll run.  Hopefully, it'll last the four years only.

[franksolich]

I saw a very encouraging thing on Fox this morning, apparently through some form of exit polling on early voters in Florida, although the Dems significantly outnumbered GOP early voters, the vote (as exit-polled) has been substantially in John McCain's favor.

I saw that yesterday, and saw the numbers too, but the numbers slipped right out of this head after I read them.

Vaguely, it was something like 49% of the early voters in Florida were registered Democrats, 30% registered Republicans.

McCain had a lead of 6% or 7% in it.

Something like that; at any rate, it was out of whack.

It's all good.

[Wretched Excess]

I saw that yesterday, and saw the numbers too, but the numbers slipped right out of this head after I read them.

Vaguely, it was something like 49% of the early voters in Florida were registered Democrats, 30% registered Republicans.

McCain had a lead of 6% or 7% in it.

Something like that; at any rate, it was out of whack.

It's all good.

I would theorize that this is a demonstration of jewish voters turning out for mccain.

[Thor]

Turns out that the three newspapers that were discharged from the campaign plane have all endorsed McCain. (per Fox News)

Journalists from three major newspapers -- each having endorsed John McCain -- reportedly have been booted from  Barack Obama's campaign plane for the final leg of the presidential race.

The Washington Times reported Friday that they were notified of the Obama campaign's decision Thursday evening -- even though the paper has covered Obama from the start.

Executive Editor John Solomon told FOXNews.com that the Obama campaign claimed it didn't have enough seats on the plane, but "I don't think the explanation makes sense to us."

"We've been traveling since 2007 with him. ... We're a relevant newspaper -- every day we break news," Solomon said. "And to suddenly be kicked off the plane for people who haven't covered it as aggressively or thoroughly as we are ... it sort of feels unfair."

He said the newspaper protested but was turned down again by the campaign.

"I can only hope that the candidate who describes himself as wanting to unite the nation doesn't have some sort of litmus test for who he decides gets to cover the campaign," Solomon said, noting that the Obama campaign's decision came just two days after the paper endorsed McCain.

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/31/obama-plane-pitches-reporters-mccain-endorsing-papers/

[DumbAss Tanker]

I would theorize that this is a demonstration of jewish voters turning out for mccain.

Not so sure about that, in recent years an awful lot of American Jewish voters seem to have a puzzling indifference to issues vitally affecting Israel, focusing instead on a liberal domestic agenda.  I expect the bulk of these nominal Dems are former Hillary supporters (and she had very heavy support in Florida) as well as a certain leavening of plain old Blue Dogs.   

[NHSparky]

I would theorize that this is a demonstration of jewish voters turning out for mccain.

There are a lot of Jewish people in Florida--but not THAT many.

[Wretched Excess]

There are a lot of Jewish people in Florida--but not THAT many.

these are only the early voters.  I would hazard to guess that they have shown up disproportionately in the early turnout.  early voters are a very small subset of the overall voters, but a big chunk of jewish voters could have turned out early.

[Wretched Excess]

Not so sure about that, in recent years an awful lot of American Jewish voters seem to have a puzzling indifference to issues vitally affecting Israel, focusing instead on a liberal domestic agenda.  I expect the bulk of these nominal Dems are former Hillary supporters (and she had very heavy support in Florida) as well as a certain leavening of plain old Blue Dogs.   

obama's post-primary change of heart on the defense of israel and support of the palestinians has got to be moving that demographic group.  it's just got to be.  I concede that it isn't visible in the polls, but I have decided that the polls are worthless this year.

[BlueStateSaint]

And now there's this:

SHOCKER: Team Hillary believes McCain will win New Hampshire, Iowa, and MAINE
Posted by hillbuzz under Uncategorized

October 29, 2008

Tonight’s been a busy night, in that we’ve talked to a half dozen people on three times as many subjects - including Team Hillary members in New Hampshire and Maine, who we know well from the primaries.

Here’s the kicker: these people aren’t McCain supporters. Several are working for Obama now in both states, because they have political jobs and thus must tow the party line. Others are voting Green and no longer campaigning for anyone, but are tuned into things in their states.

We know nothing about New Hampshire or Maine and have never pretended to. We won’t start now. All we’ll tell you is what these people told us tonight, and it’s that they truly do expect John McCain to win both New Hampshire and Maine next week, for the reasons they gave below:

(1) In both states, they have never seen an enthusiasm deficit for Democrats like this. Hillary Democrats there say there are more “closet McCain supporters” than anyone can count. Despite what the media says, people are not enthused and fired up to go out and vote for Obama — quite the contrary: people are scare of Obama’s policies and will be voting McCain. The enthusiasm deficit in both New Hampshire and Maine is “as clear as day” according to those we spoke to tonight. They say they do not see anywhere near the level of Obama signs, stickers, buttons, etc. out this year, as they did Kerry, Gore, Clinton, and even Dukakis gear in years past. They say this is actually shocking, because it should be everywhere, but no one cares enough to put those signs out. No one can use the excuse that there’s not enough money for signs and stickers: Obama’s campaign is supposedly rolling in dough, so why aren’t New Hampshire and Maine blanketed in Obama signs? Because people don’t want them in their yards and won’t be voting for him.

(2) We asked why people in these states are not voting for Obama and were told that in Maine, especially, a lot of it has to do with Joe the Plumber and redistributing the wealth. Much of Maine makes its living off the sea: fishermen pull in $200,000 or more a year in family businesses. Joe Biden’s slip that Obama really intends to define “wealthy” as $150,000 a year or above sent terror through Maine’s fishing community and other small business industries.  We were told tonight that Maine and New Hampshire have more small family businesses that would be affected by Obama’s redistribution of wealth than we could imagine. Joe the Plumber resonated with these people — especially the fishermen. Todd Palin was recently dispatched to Maine in what the media claimed was an attempt to score one electoral college vote for Maine: tonight we were told it looks like McCain will win the whole state, not just that one congessional district.

The next paragraph talks about Gov. Palin, but I can't post it because of the restrictions to five grafs.  Let's just say that they have effuse praise for her.

The rest of the entry, and the comments, are at:

http://hillbuzz.wordpress.com/2008/10/29/shocker-team-hillary-believes-mccain-will-win-new-hampshire-and-maine/#comments

[DumbAss Tanker]

I have decided that the polls are worthless this year.

On that one, we completely agree!

 

[USA4ME]

I see Dem nominee Il Duce likes to throw little temper tantrums when there are those who don't agree with him and his supreme magnificance and glory.

.

[Wretched Excess]

On that one, we completely agree!

 

I honestly think that a lot of polling organizations are basing their turnout model on the turnout in the dem primaries.  statisticians hate uncertainty when creating a model, and when faced with it, will turn to any measurable past event that they can find. 

[Wretched Excess]

I see Dem nominee Il Duce likes to throw little temper tantrums when there are those who don't agree with him and his supreme magnificance and glory.

.

My biggest fault?  I may be just a little too awesome.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Absolutely, though I also believe it is not entirely the statisticians' fault.  There have been major changes in communications technology which are probably demographically biased in some unexamined direction (switching to cell-only or even VOIP for voice communication), much of it since the last Presidential election, and on top of that people are less and less inclined to either talk to them or respond truthfully if they do.  There may or may not be a bias in which group's partisans are more likely to be tapped even without those issues, for which of course the pollsters make the big bucks by supposedly taking into account in their models, but that all comes down to the validity of a legacy error-correction model with grafted-on and unproved tweaks for the current cycle at crunch-time. 

[Wretched Excess]

Absolutely, though I also believe it is not entirely the statisticians' fault.  There have been major changes in communications technology which are probably demographically biased in some unexamined direction (switching to cell-only or even VOIP for voice communication), much of it since the last Presidential election, and on top of that people are less and less inclined to either talk to them or respond truthfully if they do.  There may or may not be a bias in which group's partisans are more likely to be tapped even without those issues, for which of course the pollsters make the big bucks by supposedly taking into account in their models, but that all comes down to the validity of a legacy error-correction model with grafted-on and unproved tweaks for the current cycle at crunch-time. 

another flaw in the whole endeavor is that poll respondents are self selecting.  I have actually seen surveyUSA in my caller ID in the past month or so;  I didn't answer the phone.  and even if I did, I would have hung up.  it's kinda hard to establish a corrective for that.

[NHSparky]

Looks like these guys forgot Rule One of the Obama Campaign Team:

[DumbAss Tanker]

another flaw in the whole endeavor is that poll respondents are self selecting.  I have actually seen surveyUSA in my caller ID in the past month or so;  I didn't answer the phone.  and even if I did, I would have hung up.  it's kinda hard to establish a corrective for that.

They'd have to correctly model the political positions of the failures to respond AND the failures to contact, both on essentially no data but just SWAGed with assumptions.  I don't htink they are working with any real modeling in use, just guesses.  As far as modelling return rates on calls, there may be some predictive tools from the telemarketing experts, but I can't see that they'd tell the pollsters how the responders and nonresponders split out politically.

[Airwolf]

Well gang once again I used the VRWC time machine to travel forward in time. I found out what an Obama post election rally was like . Here is a picture I took of Joe biden in his new limo.

[Wretched Excess]

his retaliatory treatment of press organizations that he feels are hostile to him (hell, they cit off a florida TV station that asked biden a tough question), and his frequent comments that foxnews is costing him several percentage points in the polls, all make me think that the fairness doctrine is almost a certain thing if he is elected.

[Peter3_1]

What film of "early voter" I saw shown were mostly college age and minority voters. That's the problem with a 30 sed. newsbite. BUT, it was noted that 60% were registered "D"'s, and that so far , McCain was over 50% in that voting.

[Chris_]

What film of "early voter" I saw shown were mostly college age and minority voters. That's the problem with a 30 sed. newsbite. BUT, it was noted that 60% were registered "D"'s, and that so far , McCain was over 50% in that voting.

If that trend holds through Tuesday, perhaps the PUMAs can put it out of reach for the Annointed One, even with ACORN vote fraud.

I still want the vote fraud - all the vote fraud - prosecuted this election.  We need to get back to being a nation built on the rule of law, for chrissakes...