Martha Coakley's stupid poll results

You may have read about the poll showing Martha Coakley's inevitability. David Bernstein explains why the numbers are meaningless and Coakley's campaign was dumb to release them.

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two week old poll numbers

the campaign seems to be hell-bent on stoking the perception that you're supposed to vote for Martha Coakley -- because she's a woman, because she's supported by the important people, because she's endorsed by the important groups, and most of all because she's going to win.

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According to the press release, the poll was conducted September 21-24. According to my little appointment calendar, that's two weeks ago. These are two-week-old numbers -- in a 12-week campaign. Nobody can claim with a straight face that these figures reflect the present tense reality.

So the question is, why would Coakley's campaign release an old internal poll today? To distract from the Menino email thing? To reassure supporters who are worried about her not being up with ads yet?

I tried to ask Coakley's campaign that question, but they haven't gotten back to me.

Not Voting for Martha Coakley

This is the most ridicilous canadate I have ever seen. Her ads suggest someone in the room could be a child molester. Wow, so she wants to accuse every guy there and tell people they could be predators. This lady has a sick mind. She doesnt have anymore than 1000.00 in assets of her own. I saw this quoted from other sources. What does she do for her money. For someone making over 130,000 per year they should have some money. I dont think any guy is going to help her out with her attitude. People, she is no Ted Kennedy. Ive always voted Democratic all the way. So I can tell you vote anyway you want. But this lady is nuts.

from the mouths of anon's

I don't think any guy is going to help her out with her attitude. People, she is no Ted Kennedy. Ive always voted Democratic all the way. So I can tell you vote anyway you want. But this lady is nuts.

Martha Coakley is no Ted Kennedy.

Martha Coakley

Just a quick reminder to all my fellow cynics when it comes to politicians: the political system as it is now construed makes it virtually impossible for anyone with integrity to operate based only upon what is right. Anyone who gets into politics – and wants to get something done - has to make concessions in order to work with the cast of dysfunctional actors that get into positions of influence and make such a mess of the world. So we can either just throw our hands up in the air and give up, or try to put into office the people that we think will do the best job of holding on to their integrity - and thank them profusely for being willing to put up with the political stench around them as they try to get something positive done.
With that cynical perspective as a preface, Martha Coakley is one of the few people I have worked up the energy to actually support over the past many years. She was a classmate of mine at Williams, so I have known her long before she knew she was going into politics. It would be very hard to find anyone who knew her then who didn't like and respect her. From where I sit, she is doing as good a job of holding on to her integrity as anyone could do in this awful age of narcissistic commentators and self-righteous bloggers, mostly people who seem to lack the capacity for self-awareness, critical thinking and complex thought. From where I sit, Martha has actually been able to hold onto ideals that inform her decision making, and a capacity to reflect on what might serve the greater good, rather than what might be politically expedient and self-serving.
There are those who will only scrutinize the political concessions that the system demands and who will speak about Martha as if they really knew something about her. They don’t. Because I have known Martha for a long time, I see the price that she has to pay to get in there - in the manure pile of politics - to try to move a complicated world in a better direction. Don’t agree with her vision of that better world? Fine. Make your voice heard. We always need lots of perspectives to keep us from getting blinded by our own perceptual bias. But remember our founding fathers, when they devised this political system, held out hope that people would engage with each other based upon thought and reflection concerning what would keep our shared republic strong, rather than upon primitive and self-serving emotions. I have thought about it and I’m supporting Martha.

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