Jonathan Alter said the Dem's are getting out POLLED!! WHAT

[bigdarryl]

Anyone see Keith Oberman talking to Alter about this so called 72 hour get out the vote by the rethugs and Rove he said the rethugs have MISSIVES amounts of money to spend more that the dem's. Alter said the rethugs have several more polling organizations on hand my question is why do they have more money than us. and wasn't Howard Dean supposed to have fixed this. and what the fuck happen to the internet fund raising

[blm]

1. Alter needs to pick up the elctronic voting machine CLUEPHONE!

His breathless reporting is what the GOPs use to COVER THEIR THEFT through other means.

FOCK THAT!!! PAY ATTENTION YOU IDIOT JOURNALISTS! Left journalists can be even MORE damaging than the right when they don't PAY ATTENTION!

[greeneyedboy]

2. um, fundraising is going great, as is polling. not sure what Alter is smoking.

the GOP has traditionally had more money than Democratic Party, because they represent more moneyed interests. we have been closing the gap.

as for the polls, that's utter nonsense. we have an 11- to 19-point lead in every respected generic poll. sounds pretty good to me.

this chicken little stuff is just a distraction. keep up the great GOTV work, everyone.

[FogerRox]

3. deans goal is long term rebuilding of the party, as if you didnt know

Maybe your ire should focus on the 45 unopposed DEMs who hold 26 million bucks, and aren't sharing.

[blm]

9. Dean has his work cut out for him - collapsed party infrastructures in most

states since 1997, allowed to further collapse after the 2000 election cycle even though the weaknesses were apparent.

Thank undergod some Dems persevered and are working to FIX and repair the structure and secure the election process for all Dem voters and candidates.

[Hippo_Tron]

21. They're limited to how much they can give

The FEC won't just let each one of them give $500,000 to the DCCC. I believe they are limited to the same amount that a PAC can give, which is a few thousand.

[FogerRox]

23. A PAC can give 5k to a candidate

I think PACs can move larger amounts to other PACS. ANd the Republicans are moving money around, we should be moving money too, from unopposed Incumbants to challengers that are close to winning.

[Hippo_Tron]

26. I think that the amount they can give to other PACs is still pretty limited

And just giving money to PACs doesn't mean that the money will be used to run ads for democratic candidates, or at least not good ones. IMO, the GOP has more PACs that are just arms of their party and that's why they can funnel money to these PACs and expect them to run attack ads on dem candidates. The NRA is a perfect example. They endorsed Burns over Tester despite Tester's perfect NRA rating and opposition to the Patriot Act which is an issue with gun owners, because they are more interested in seeing Republicans win than they are in promoting their issue. PACs that traditionally support Democrats are more issue than party oriented. Giving money to a pro-chocie PAC, for example, won't do us much good because that PAC will probably run ads about choice when that isn't the major issue we are trying to hit home. Not to mention that several pro-choice PACs endorsed Chafee over Whitehouse.

[FogerRox]

32. Most Incumbants have their own PAC's. Just for this purpose...

... to make it easier to move money around. Again, the Republicans have been getting safe incumbants to move some cash around for the purpose of helping each other out. DEMs have not yet taken advantage of this route, untill just recently, and not at the pace that the repubs are.

[deminks]

4. I saw him, I thought it was strange

that Alter's eyes kept moving back and forth like he was reading off a teleprompter. Maybe not, but that's what it looked like to me.

[saltpoint]

5. I'm sorry, but unless a reporter cites a specific poll as his or her source,

that poll isn't there.

Currently in available and reasonably reliable polling, Republicans are getting their fannies whomped.

Alter is wrong.

[Rowdyboy]

22. I found his entire interview disjointed and confusing....He seemed

to be totally unfamiliar with information that I take for granted. I found that piece discouraging and unproductive.

[saltpoint]

29. Yep. There's some pieces missing. Rove is paid to be cryptic and

deceptive, but there's just too many cool-browed mainstream or conservative sources who contradict Rove this time.

[jcv1]

6. Internal

He was talking about the Repug internal polls in each district in each state. They have gobs of money to spend on these polls and the Dems don't. THE MATH is what the results are in each local poll, not generic statewide or national polls. I received a call from a polling company and the way the questions are asked could skew the answers, thus the results, the way the one asking wants to hear. I still think Rove is overly optimistic, but the results will be closer than the polls are showing.... wait for the big Iraq event to occur in the next 10 days and see what happens.....

[WCGreen]

8. Code for Push polls...

Such as "would you vote for a candidate who is black and cavorts with white playboy bunnies..."

Or this little chestnut from the Cleveland area...

Would you vote for Eric Fingerhut if you knew he was gay...." That one was used by Steve Latourette to unseat Fingerhut in 1994....

[beaconess]

14. Push polls are not the same as push polls . . .

Push polls are polls designed to sway the voter's opinion, not guage it. Internal polls are polls that are conducted by campaigns to determine where voters in particular states, districts, precincts, etc. stand in order to better target ads, campaign strategy and GOTV.

[WCGreen]

15. Al the money they are spending....

they would have to be buying every chunck of media...

Believe me, they are doing Push Polls just as they are doing regular polling...

[beaconess]

16. I didn't say they aren't doing push polling - but internal polls are something else

Their push polling doesn't give them any information. Their internal polling gives them information that national polls and other public polls don't provide.

Both parties do internal polling but Republicans do a lot more of it and, as a result, can better tailor and target their ads, message and GOTV.

[WCGreen]

19. I know the difference....

I just think they are spending a lot of that polling money on Push Polls....

[beaconess]

28. But I don't think that was the point - the point was that they're getting

info from their internal polling that the Dems may not necessarily be picking up because they're not doing as much internal polling as the GOP.

[Patchuli]

17. "wait for the big Iraq event"

I'm worried it's going to be a big Iran event!

[beaconess]

7. He's right

[madfloridian]

10. I heard that....you are misinterpreting him.

Yes, he is right. Democrats are spending money on GOTV and NOT so much on internal polling.

He said that, and he was not disapproving.

You can't fix decades in less than two years.

[lancdem]

12. I have no problem with that

We need to catch up to the GOP when it comes to GOTV.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[senseandsensibility]

18. Welcome to DU!

Nice post!:hi:

[Mountainman]

13. If they are going to steal an election they need polls showing a race as close.

[Infinite Hope]

20. Dean gave a lot to states and it's working....

Those of us working campaigns on the ground now have the resources...Dean shouldn't be blamed for putting the money where Democrats have been calling for it to go for years.

[FogerRox]

24. Alaska hasn;t had DNC staffer in years, decades. They now have 5.

IN NJ we have 4 Staffers, hired in April.

[POAS]

25. He did NOT say R's lead in the polls

He said they were spending more money on polling to track individual elections while the D's are spending money on GOTV.

This was a reference to Rove saying that while the interviewer was looking at 4 or 5 polls he was looking at over 60 polls. Rove was talking about their own commissioned polls targeting individual races around the country.

In those internal polls Rove contends he has evidence that the R's will keep control.

[maine_raptor]

27. You are correct, it was the NUMBER of polls, not the results.

What Alter said was that the GOP does MORE internal polling than the Dems.

And to tell you the truth, I found that bit of info upsetting.

In Politics, INFORMATION is as important as money. If you know what and why the voter is thinking, what causes them to want to vote, then your GOTV effort will be more effective; the effort then becomes "targeted".

Now he's the interesting part: Rove maybe reading his internals and figuring that his GOTV effort will turn the tide. But I wonder how many of his supporters, the ones he "drives" to the booth, will, when the curtain is closed, will actually vote D and not R.


Think, I'll save some gas money this year; call up the local GOP and ask for a ride to the voting booth instead of driving myself. :evilgrin:

[tinfoilinfor2005]

30. I don't understand the "driving to the booth" thing...

I've worked in campaigns for years, and often manned the telephones on voting day, offering rides and babysitting. I have never had one person accept either.

[maine_raptor]

33. "Drives" as in gets to go and actually cast a Vote.

I too have worked in campaigns, and up here you do go around to the retirement homes with a van and drive some very sweet older ladies to the polls. Trust me, I know it works. How do you think I won races in 4 different local elections in the past, eh? :rofl:

[Little Star]

31. I think ....

you might have misunderstood what Alter was saying. He is a good guy. He was just saying that Rove does see the many internal polls that the Republicans take. He wasn't saying that Rove was reporting the outcome of those polls correctly.

[pscot]

34. The scariest part of that segment

was what Rove had to say on NPR. He was gloating that he had better, more up-to-date information than either the MSM or the Democrats. The GOP are pouring tons of advertising money into hot races and the polls, according to Rove, are moving their way. Look at a site like this one, http://www.pollster.com/house.php#NM-01
and you will find that most of the available polling information is anywhere from a week to six weeks old. The fact is that we don't have a clue as to what is happening in individual races across the country. The generic polling doesn't mean squat. I think we're over-confident, though I can't for the life of me imagine why we should be, based on past performance.