Democratic insiders poll...list of names included. SO VERY discouraging.

[madfloridian]

What they say about our chances of winning, the remarks they make, the criticisms...just blow my mind.

Read some of the criticisms, some of the good remarks, and then try to match with the names.

No wonder we have been wandering out of power for a while. They sound just like Republicans. Some of the quotes are good, but too many are just wishy washy and half-hearted, so much like Bill Clinton sounded on The View today.

National Journal Insiders Poll

Q: On a scale of zero (no chance) to 10 (virtual certainty), how likely are the Democrats to win the White House in November?

Democrats (86 votes)

September 2008
AVERAGE SCORE: 6.3
Low (0-3): 0%
Moderate (4-6): 55%
High (7-10): 45%

June 2008
AVERAGE SCORE: 7.0
Low (0-3): 0%
Moderate (4-6): 35%
High (7-10): 65%

What a fearful bunch of insiders.

A few of the comments:

. "Palin was a perfect pick to reintroduce McCain. And Democrats bit on getting into a debate about her experience."

5. "War and Palin and the economy aside, this is still an evenly divided country with the popular vote slightly favoring the Democrats and the electoral map slightly favoring the Republicans."

5. "One has to admire a political party that can take what was once perceived as 'certain victory' and turn it into a horse race, having nominated the jockey with little track experience."

5. "And hanging by a thread."

5. "Obama must get on the offense. The McCain-Palin vulnerabilities grow by the day, but to this point they are getting away with murder, which may actually be the only commandment they haven't broken."

5. "Is Obama Mike Dukakis, or is he Bill Clinton?"

6. "The failure to get on a consistent economic message is hurting Sen. Obama. The Obama campaign is wasting too much time and money on messages about which middle-class swing voters just don't care."

6. "What was once an '8' has become a '6.' Democrats keep saying, with faux assurance, that 'Obama is still closing the sale,' but at what point do we say that 51 percent of Americans may not 'close the sale'?"

They are seeing a different campaign, a different person. This sounds like very inside insiders whose noses are a little out of joint.

Even the nicer comments are blaming Obama for the "lipstick on the pig" controversy....saying he needs to talk about the economy.

Damn them...he WAS talking about the economy. Do our insiders turn on TV, get the day's talking points, then run and take polls?

Read the list of the names. I have, and I can almost figure out who said what.

[Jennicut]

1. Who cares what insiders think? We will decide in Nov.

[gateley]

2. Democratic Insiders can be wrong, too.

They're just voicing their opinions and interpretations - like all the pundits and like all of us do. Opinions aren't votes.

[groovedaddy]

3. Show me where they are polling young people (can't - don't have land lines)

and show me where they are polling African Americans who don't normally vote.
Both these demographics will turn out in record numbers on election day, and they ARE NOT being included in the polling. Why not?

[Freddie Stubbs]

5. Pollsters are calling people without land lines

I was polled last week. I only have a cell phone. It is the number which I provided to the election office when I registered to vote.

[groovedaddy]

8. I'd like to see how prevailant this is. n.t

[Freddie Stubbs]

12. Why wouldn't they call people on their cell phones?

People will only cell phone register to vote and use their cell phone number on their registration. Pollsters use voter registration records to get phone numbers to conduct polls. They don't know which numbers are cell phone and which are land lines.

[groovedaddy]

13. Our state doesn't require a phone number on the reg card, besides

most polling done is targeted toward "likely voters," i.e. those who have voted in in 4 or 5 of the last 5 elections. There will be a huge pool of voters outside that criterion, imho.

[madfloridian]

4. The names...

"Democratic Political Insiders Karen Ackerman, Jill Alper, David Axelrod, Brad Bannon, Dave Beattie, Andy Bechhoefer, Cornell Belcher, Mitchell W. Berger, Mike Berman, Donna Brazile, Mark Brewer, Ed Bruley, George Bruno, Deb Callahan, Bonnie Campbell, Bill Carrick, Martin J. Chavez, Tony Coelho, Jim Craig, Jerry Crawford, Stephanie Cutter, Jeff Danielson, Peter Daou, Jim Demers, Tad Devine, Debbie Dingell, Monica Dixon, Michael Donilon, Tom Donilon, Anita Dunn, Jeff Eller, Steve Elmendorf, Carter Eskew, Eric Eve, Vic Fazio, Peter Fenn, Scott Ferson, Gordon Fischer, Tina Flournoy, Don Foley, Don Fowler, Gina Glantz, Joe Grandmaison, Anna Greenberg, Stan Greenberg, Pat Griffin, Michael Gronstal, Marcia Hale, Paul Harstad, Laura Hartigan, Mike Henry, Leo Hindery, Jr., Harold Ickes, Marcus Jadotte, John Jameson, Steve Jarding, Jonathon Jones, Jim Jordan, Gale Kaufman, Shar Knutson, Kam Kuwata, Celinda Lake, David Lang, Sylvia Larsen, Chris Lehane, Jeff Link, Bill Lynch, Steve Marchand, Jim Margolis, Paul Maslin, Terry McAuliffe, Caroline McCarley, Susan McCue, Gerald McEntee, Tom McMahon, Phil McNamara, David Medina, Mark Mellman, John Merrigan, Steve Murphy, Janet Napolitano, David Nassar, Marcia Nichols, John Norris, Tom Ochs, Tom O'Donnell, Scott Parven, Jeffrey Peck, Debora Pignatelli, John Podesta, Tony Podesta, Bruce Reed, Mame Reiley, Steve Ricchetti, Susan Rice, Will Robinson, Steve Rosenthal, David Rudd, John Ryan, Wendy Sherman, Terry Shumaker, Phil Singer, Bob Slagle, Erik Smith, Doug Sosnik, Darry Sragow, Karl Struble, Katrina Swett, Sarah Swisher, Eric Tabor, Jeffrey Trammell, Ed Turlington, Mike Veon, Rick Wiener, Bridgette Williams, JoDee Winterhof, and Jim Zogby."

Waiting for a video from The View today. Words sound about the same.

[blm]

6. mf, please look at this thread in GD, please....

imo, there IS another sabotage on the horizon.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4057245&mesg_id=4057245

[madfloridian]

11. Went there...

gave a recommend. Agree, and I don't trust anyone much anymore.

[Overseas]

7. There are the DLC insiders and then the DNC insiders

and us regular Democrats.

Wonder which ones they spoke with... !

[cliffordu]

9. I want some names of these 'insiders'. As far as I'm concerned they could have

polled the monkeys flying around my butt and collected data with just as much validity.

bullshit.

[flowomo]

10. I find that all pretty reasonable....

90 percent say a "moderate" to "high" chance of winning. Sounds right to me.

As for the comments, assuming these are a bit old, they were generally accurate at the time. And many DUer's and other Dem faithful agreed.

Cheerleading is not a strategy and it doesn't change reality. This is a tough election fight.... the last peaks and valleys have not happened for either side.

[yourguide]

14. All of the insiders thought HRC had this wrapped up too

so I dont hold much stock in their opinion...