Thursday, October 10, 2024

Fearless and Foolish Poll Prognostication

Tuesday, November 5 will be Election Day in America.  If you are like me, it cannot come soon enough.  So many aspects of our society and culture have demeaned themselves in the run-up to this election and it is truly a failing on the part of both national parties to offer us the choices we have for president.  But…it is what it is.  We will have two names on the ballot for president.  We must pick one or the other.  How will that play out?

 

If you want to poll shop, you can pretty much find one that will support your opinion…whatever that opinion might be.  Taking an overall view of the polls, the inescapable conclusion is that the race is very close.  To me, taking into account all the news from varied sources that I review, there is a modest but tangible shift taking place that favors the Trump campaign.  In order to be significant, this perceived shift will have to continue for weeks…not days.  But for what it is worth, I believe we have passed the days standard and have moved into the weeks category.  I think the shift is real; I think the shift is significant; and if the Harris campaign cannot come up with something dramatic to alter the direction of the shift…I believe the shift will ultimately result in Donald Trump winning the presidential race.  Why do I think this?

 

When a person is asked to respond to a poll question, there is a myriad of considerations to think about when assigning credibility to that poll.  When was the poll conducted?  What are the internal workings of the poll?  Who is sponsoring the poll?  Who is releasing the poll results?  Precisely how are the questions presented in the poll?  All of these aspects impact the results of the poll and…the plain and simple fact is that if a pollster is so inclined and adequately equipped, they can pretty much deliver whatever poll results the sponsor desires.  So at the end of the day, we are left with deciding for ourselves whether or not the poll is credible or not; knowing all the while that it could be in either category.

 

We are pretty much faced with two options.  Option one is to research the pollsters, think for ourselves, and decide who is worthy of our attention.  Most of us are simply not equipped to make that judgment.  Option two is to rely on a credible source that supposes to select a composite group of reliable polls and generates an overall average based on the composite results.  The best example of option two is the Real Clear Politics poll found here: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/ .  Of course, you must decide for yourself whether or not the folks at Real Clear Politics are straight up about the averaging process.

 

Back to the question: Why do I think this?  Any person who replies to a pollster and indicates that they will vote for Trump is, in my opinion, highly reliable.  There is simply not much upside to saying this if you do not truly feel this way.  Therefore, Trump’s numbers in the polls represent a reliable floor.  That is of course, assuming they go to the polls and actually vote.  A person who responds to a pollster with Harris vote likelihood may break one of three ways.  One group may truly be decided and are therefore a reliable Harris vote.   The second group may be saying Harris is their vote out of loyalty to the Democrat Party and they are still trying to decide if that loyalty is strong enough to convince them to vote for Harris.  They would never want to take the chance that someone might consider them Trump votes…even if that possibility exists.  Some of these will vote for Harris and some of these will vote for Trump.  The third group is people who hate Trump so viscerally that having already decided they could never vote for Trump, they are still struggling with the choice of either voting for the less than desirable Democrat candidate Harris or…simply staying at home and not voting at all.  If these assumptions about Harris poll responses are correct, then her poll figures do not represent a true floor; the actual floor would be significantly lower due to the existence of the group two and three Harris voters I have mentioned. 

 

My point is this:  If the polls were dead even, then Trump is locked in with his half and will peel off part of Harris’s half.  Harris’s half is not locked in and will fall below 50 percent when the peeling commences; effectively transferring a voter gain to Trump.  Not perfectly so, but rather like a zero sum game. The result of this equation is that Trump’s ceiling is much higher than that of Harris and if Trump can achieve and maintain a poll level of 48-49 percent, he is in an excellent position to win.  In my humble opinion, Trump's floor is locked in and growing on a daily basis.  Harris’s floor is falling on a daily basis.  If this shift continues unabated, Donald Trump will be the next president.

 

If you track both of the presidential candidates on a regular basis, you should have arrived at a couple of conclusions.  One is that the Donald Trump running for president today is the same Donald Trump that served as president before.  Good or bad…Trump is gonna be Trump.   Two is that regardless of what her campaign might be saying, Kamala Harris is no change agent and will be a simple and straightforward continuation of the Biden/Harris Administration.  They will simply change the sign at the entrance of the tent.  If you read the links below, you will not only find compelling evidence of this, but you will hear her actual words verifying this fact.  Therefore, the choice is simple.  Do you want an America and world as it existed under four years of a Donald Trump presidency (sans Covid)…or do you want a continuation of what we have experienced under the last three years and ten months of the Biden/Harris Administration? 

 

You really do not need a media talking head to answer this question for you.  You do not need to ask your neighbor, your friend, or your parents.  You do not have to read or scour the internet (ESP blogs like this one!) and delve into research to help you with this choice.  Just find yourself a quiet place, sit down, relax, and then reflect on how things were then and how things are now.  

OK...having climbed out on that narrow limb and exposed myself for the fool that I am…let us move on the news of the day…the way things are now. 

 

All things about the Economy...

 

https://mrctv.org/blog/craig-bannister/biden-harris-economy-after-44-months-six-charts-media-dont-want-you-see

 

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/10/public-sector-booms.php

 

https://reason.com/2024/10/04/federal-buy-american-rules-cost-over-100000-per-job-created/

 

https://mrctv.org/blog/craig-bannister/jobless-claims-jump-highest-level-more-year

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-problem-of-rising-interest-payments-on-the-debt/

 

https://reason.com/2024/10/10/biden-and-harris-record-on-spending-and-debt-is-a-tragedy-of-epic-proportion/

 

All things about Education

 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/3175811/biden-student-loan-plan-back-on/

 

https://amgreatness.com/2024/10/04/now-its-time-to-eliminate-tenure/

 

https://amgreatness.com/2024/10/02/classical-v-unclassical-curricula/

 

https://reason.com/2024/10/07/act-scores-are-down-grades-are-up-somethings-fishy/

 

https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2024/10/universities-are-doing-education-badly/

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-debacle-of-urban-public-schools/

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-latest-college-fad-belonging/

 

All things Foreign Policy and Global Conflicts

 

https://amgreatness.com/2024/10/07/the-biden-administration-and-iran-dei-manifested-as-foreign-policy/

 

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/10/did-the-biden-administration-perpetuate-russias-invasion-of-ukraine.php

 

https://amgreatness.com/2024/10/04/the-biden-harris-doctrine-has-brought-the-world-closer-to-world-war-iii/

 

https://www.hudson.org/defense-strategy/israel-iran-war-enters-new-stage-middle-east-north-africa-defense-intelligence-can-kasapoglu

 

https://nypost.com/2024/10/07/world-news/faces-of-oct-7-hostages-97-people-still-held-by-hamas-in-gaza/

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/one-year-later-remember-the-hostages/

 

https://reason.com/2024/10/07/october-7-offered-a-stark-choice-between-good-and-evil/

 

https://www.thefp.com/p/a-year-of-revelations-702

 

https://amgreatness.com/2024/10/10/try-a-little-honesty-about-israel-2/

 

All things Immigration Policy

 

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/10/immigration-by-the-numbers.php

 

https://mrctv.org/blog/craig-bannister/95-17-million-potential-national-security-threats-encountered-sw-border

 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/immigration/3177787/biden-sees-lowest-year-illegal-immigrant-arrests/

 

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2024/10/04/the-number-of-illegal-aliens-dumped-into-swing-states-is-jawdropping-n2645729

 

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/10/the-border-fiasco-northern-edition.php

 

All things Healthcare

 

https://americanmind.org/salvo/can-healthcare-futures-save-healthcares-future/

 

All things Campaign 2024

 

https://thefederalist.com/2024/10/02/chutkan-drops-jack-smiths-165-page-last-ditch-effort-to-smear-trump-right-before-election/

 

https://jonathanturley.org/2024/10/07/jack-smiths-october-surprise-was-not-that-surprising-and-that-is-the-problem/

 

http://jewishworldreview.com/michael/barone100724.php3

 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/daily-memo/3172919/vice-president-debate-amid-chaos/

 

https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/10/01/fact-checking-claims-made-in-vance-walz-debate/

 

https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/mark-finkelstein/2024/10/02/halperin-vp-debate-vance-runaway-winner-drubbing-shellacking

 

https://johnkassnews.com/walz-im-a-knucklehead-yes-sir-governor/

 

https://thefederalist.com/2024/10/03/tim-walz-endorsed-censorship-in-front-of-millions-of-americans-and-no-one-cares/

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/10/harris-hits-a-walz/

 

https://amgreatness.com/2024/10/05/jd-vance-abortion-and-the-long-march/

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/the-basement-campaign-isnt-going-to-cut-it/

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/the-democrats-anxiety-vibe-shift-is-here/

 

https://thefederalist.com/2024/10/10/the-federalists-2024-battleground-state-elections-guide/

 

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/thudemocratic-coalition-shambles-kamala-bleeds-key-voter-blocs

 

https://lawliberty.org/the-progressive-threat-to-constitutionalism/

 

https://americanmind.org/salvo/burdened-by-america-as-it-has-been/

 

All things Biden/Harris/Walz

 

https://thefederalist.com/2024/10/09/harris-is-only-running-for-president-because-it-became-impossible-to-hide-bidens-decline/

 

https://nypost.com/2024/10/09/opinion/kamala-harris-has-proven-she-is-just-joe-biden-2-0/

 

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/10/the-same-page.php

 

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/10/stop-making-sense-kamala-harris-edition.php

 

https://reason.com/2024/10/05/flip-flopping-toward-freedom/

 

https://thefederalist.com/2024/10/08/kamala-harris-is-poised-to-revive-the-worst-aspects-of-fdrs-socialist-agenda/

 

https://reason.com/2024/10/08/is-kamala-harris-really-a-yimby/

 

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/10/another-knucklehead-move-by-walz.php

 

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/04/politics/walz-audits-fraud-accountability-invs/index.html

 

All things Biden/Harris Administration Incompetence

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/mayorkas-warns-fema-lacks-funding-for-hurricane-cleanup-after-agency-spent-over-a-billion-on-migrants/

 

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/10/grotesque-mismanagement-by-the-kamala-harris-administration.php

 

https://thefederalist.com/2024/10/04/comparing-helene-to-katrina-suggests-americans-are-left-to-die-because-democrats-run-the-white-house/

 

https://americanmind.org/salvo/forgotten-america-in-crisis/

 

https://justthenews.com/nation/states/floridas-desantis-takes-matters-his-own-hands-disaster-relief-investigations

 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/3184105/biden-relegates-harris-children-table-fight-desantis/

 

“This” is how the Biden/Harris Administration rewards incompetence: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/white-house-press-secretary-karine-jean-pierre-promoted-to-senior-adviser-exclusive/ar-AA1rPnuO?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=ed3d9e67a2014969c024f1891d50f3b0&ei=139

 

“This” is what qualifies you to be a SENIOR ADVISOR TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES under the Biden/Harris Administration: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karine_Jean-Pierre

 

“Incompetence” extends to the mainstream media also: https://thefederalist.com/2024/10/02/as-appalachians-languish-cbs-moderators-minimize-deadly-hurricane-helene-with-climate-change-question/

 

Speaking of CBS…All things Mainstream Media

 

https://www.thefp.com/p/cbs-marks-october-7-by-admonishing-tony-dokoupil

 

https://reason.com/2024/10/10/cbs-tony-dokoupil-ta-nehisi-coates-israel/

 

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/10/notes-on-coates.php

 

https://www.megynkelly.com/watch/ep-912-megyn-on-the-meltdown-and-hypocrisy-at-cbs-news-over-coates-interview-and-60-minutes-edits/


https://www.nationalreview.com/news/trump-accuses-cbs-of-election-interference-for-editing-kamala-harriss-israel-answer/

 

And finally…two sad commentaries on our nation today…

 

https://amgreatness.com/2024/10/07/we-are-in-need-of-renaissance-people/

 

https://jonathanturley.org/2024/10/10/colorado-supreme-court-dismisses-another-lawsuit-against-masterpiece-cakeshop/

 

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Fearless and Foolish Poll Prognostication

Tuesday, November 5 will be Election Day in America.   If you are like me, it cannot come soon enough.   So many aspects of our society and ...