Tuesday, September 25, 2012

How Carter Beat Reagan (huh?)

The American Spectator | September 25, 2012 | Jeffrey Lord

Dick Morris is right.

Here's his column on "Why the Polls Understate the Romney Vote."

Here's something Dick Morris doesn't mention. And he's charitable.

Remember when Jimmy Carter beat Ronald Reagan in 1980?
That's right. Jimmy Carter beat Ronald Reagan in 1980.
In a series of nine stories in 1980 on "Crucial States" -- battleground states as they are known today -- the New York Times repeatedly told readers then-President Carter was in a close and decidedly winnable race with the former California governor. And used polling data from the New York Times/CBS polls to back up its stories.
Four years later, it was the Washington Post that played the polling game -- and when called out by Reagan campaign manager Ed Rollins a famous Post executive called his paper's polling an "in-kind contribution to the Mondale campaign." Mondale, of course, being then-President Reagan's 1984 opponent and Carter's vice president.
All of which will doubtless serve as a reminder of just how blatantly polling data is manipulated by liberal media -- used essentially as a political weapon to support the liberal of the moment, whether Jimmy Carter in 1980, Walter Mondale in 1984 -- or Barack Obama in 2012.
First the Times in 1980 and how it played the polling game.
The states involved, and the datelines for the stories:
California -- October 6, 1980
Texas -- October 8, 1980
Pennsylvania -- October 10, 1980
Illinois -- October 13, 1980
Ohio -- October 15, 1980
New Jersey -- October 16, 1980
Florida -- October 19, 1980
New York -- October 21, 1980
Michigan -- October 23, 1980
Of these nine only one was depicted as "likely" for Reagan:
Reagan's own California. A second -- New Jersey -- was presented as a state that "appears to support" Reagan.
The Times led their readers to believe that.....

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