Over at the mothership, Stephanie Mencimer says that former Christian Coalition wunderkind Ralph Reed is “still one of the shrewder observers of American politics.” Maybe so, but this sure doesn’t convince me:
To support his assessment that the election was a direct reflection of the voters’ feelings about Obama, Reed produced some exit polling data that showed that Obama is far more hated among midterm voters than even Bill Clinton was in 1994. According to Reed’s surveys, 63 percent of voters said their
midterm votes were intended to send the message that they were opposed to the president and his agenda, the highest ever recorded.
Hmmm. According to the standard exit polls, 37% of the electorate said their vote was meant to express opposition to Obama. Those numbers might be off by a few points, but there’s no way they’re off by 26 points. This sounds a lot less like shrewdness than it does good old fashioned spin.
Beware the pundits. Beware the spin.
