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Focus Group Hell
FOCUS GROUP HELL....I confess that I've always been sort of weirdly fascinated with Joe Klein's periodic reports on Frank Luntz's focus groups. I can't really say why, since I don't have any idea whether the data they produce is at all reliable, but the fascination persists. Today, Klein reports that Luntz's latest batch of independents was deeply unimpressed with prospective vice president Sarah Palin:
Only one person said Palin made him more likely to vote for McCain; about half the 25-member group raised their hands when asked if Palin made them less likely to vote for McCain. They had a negative impression of Palin by a 2-1 margin...a fact that was reinforced when they were given hand-dials and asked to react to Palin's speech at her first appearance with McCain on Friday — the dials remained totally neutral as Palin went through her heart-warming(?) biography, and only blipped upwards when she said she opposed the Bridge to Nowhere — which wasn't quite the truth, as we now know.
Klein also reports that far from neutralizing McCain's age issue, his choice of Palin actually intensifies it — something I anticipated months ago when people were talking up the even younger Bobby Jindal as a potential running mate. Luntz apparently thinks this debacle can be salvaged with a good convention speech, but I think Klein's take is the more clear-eyed one: "They really saw this pick as a gimmick — and one that reflected badly on John McCain's judgment."
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This just came over from CNN, sort of registering the earlier rumors moot:
Bristol Palin, 17-year-old daughter of Sarah Palin, is pregnant and will keep the baby and marry the father, a senior McCain aide confirms.
Hey, if it's good enough for Britney's little sister...
NYTimes says Palin's 17-year old daughter is pregnant.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/us/international-usa-politics-palin.html?...
Can someone explain to me what her daughter's current pregnancy has to do with rumors that she may also have been pregnant earlier this year?
Preposterous and unlikely, yes - but what does today's news have to do with yesterday's rumors?
"what does today's news have to do with yesterday's rumors?"
Let me explain.
Rumors of Bristol's pregnancy had been around for months. Around the same time, Gov. Palin announced the imminent arrival of her fifth child -- despite nobody noticing she was pregnant up til that point. Conspiracy theorists crossed wires with confused rumor-mongers, and whammo! A brand-new rumor with shades of "Chinatown."
(Actually, that would be yet another rumor! Feel free to circulate, even though I just made it up.)
Funny how a scurrilious online rumor suddenly warrants a statement from Palin herself. We're you saving this nugget for a rainy day?
Country first, indeed.
So it's just a gimmick, a totally transparent sham. The corporate press/media will never promote this, right?
How is it different from buying a ranch and cutting brush for the Beltway Bozos?
The corporate press/media loves gimmicks; it's policy talk they despise.
I am very wary of this Palin thing. It is already being spun as proof that McCain really is the Bold Leader. I fully expect her to be feted as the salt of the earth for the next two months.
I'm surprised no one has brought up Desperate Housewives where last season Bree faked a pregnancy to hide her daughter's pregnancy.
Family values, beee-atch!
Abstinence-only sex ed WORKS!
This is one of these train wrecks where Obama's best course is to ignore it and get some surrogates to push the "what was McCain thinking?" angle. Sometimes your opponent is self-destructing so badly that it's a good idea to just stand back and watch quietly.
Paul,
I agree that Obama & Biden and their spokes-creatures should ignore Sarah Palin, but I do not agree that everyone else should do the same.
The phrase 'totally unqualified' has to be repeated along with 'shameless pandering to fundamentalists' until they become common.
We need to start a movement demanding that McCain replace her with some one qualified.
The rumor is that the Rovettes won't do a thing without focus grouping it first. If Luntz focus group sees right through the selection, what does that say about McCain's focus group? What does it say about the Rovettes? What does it say about McCain?
My guess is the McCain focus group responded similarly to the Luntz focus group. The Rovettes knew that after the name soaked in the public would reject Palin. They didn't care because are only interested in winning the daily news cycle so they didn't care that in a few days people would be turning on Palin and McCain.
The real puzzlement is McCain. Apparently he is willing to sacrifice his long term reputation for a day or two of press buzz, That is really tragic when you think about it.
Unsubstantiated posting on HuffPost blog says Palin's daughter was absent from school 5-8 months with mono before the Down syndrome child was born. Palin's story about water breaking and then flying back to Anchorage difficult to believe. Ergo, the kid is actually her grandson by an unidentified father. Daughter's purported pregnancy is a red herring and likely to terminate with a miscarriage soon, due to stress of public spotlight.
Ain't it wonderful? Easy to get caught up in this. Problem is, with this woman's past anything is possible. What's more, she'll lie about it. One thing she's proven is she's a true Bush Republican.
I'm surprised no one has brought up Desperate Housewives where last season Bree faked a pregnancy to hide her daughter's pregnancy.
Then let's substitute Marcia Cross for Sarah Palin on the GOP ticket.