Exit Polls: The Media's Dirty Little Secret
One of the most mystifying aspects of the coverage of the Wisconsin recall election has been the media's ongoing use of exit poll results in stories suggesting that -- despite Gov. Scott Walker's big win against the efforts of Democrats and Labor Unions to end his term early -- President Obama has a big lead over Mitt Romney in the crucial swing state.
The continued faith in the flawed Wisconsin survey is even more amazing when you consider the dreadful record exit polls have of matching up with the actual vote totals. In nearly every case of error, exit polls have oversampled Democrats, a fact almost never pointed out by the nation's news organizations.
As voting stations closed in Wisconsin on Tuesday, anchors and reporters at CNN, MSNBC and even Fox News cautioned, based on exit polls, that America was in for a “long night” of awaiting election results as exit polls showed the race was “too close to call.”
Then, suddenly, just 49 minutes after the polls closed, Fox, CNN and the rest of the networks all called the race for Walker over Democrat Tom Barrett.
The actual vote totals coming in showed the exit polls had been wrong. A race that the media's expensive exit polling apparatus had insisted was too close to call was not close at all.
And yet, reporters continued to report that, while Wisconsin voters had voted for Walker, they still preferred Obama over Mitt Romney in the presidential race -- based on the same exit poll results that were being shown to be worthless by the actual vote totals scrolling across the bottoms of their screens.
The disconnect was noticeable, as reporters acted as if the failure of the exit poll to accurately predict the Walker-Barrett numbers had no bearing on whether the same exit poll, of the same voters, would accurately reflect the Obama-Romney race in Wisconsin.
Even after the election, many media outlets are using the exit poll numbers on Obama-Romney as if they have credibility, without even mentioning the inaccuracy of the same poll in the recall race.
Wednesday's Baltimore Sun editorial is a good example: "The vote was widely billed as a preliminary skirmish in the November election between Mr. Obama and Republican Mitt Romney, but there is good reason to conclude that its predictive value is low," the Baltimore Sun said. "For starters, exit polling showed that even as voters handed Mr. Walker a convincing 53 percent to 46 percent victory over Milwaukee's Democratic mayor, Tom Barrett, a solid majority of them would have voted for Mr. Obama over Mr. Romney."
Do the Baltimore Sun's editors think about what they write before they publish it? They assert that exit polling on Tuesday showed “a solid majority” of Wisconsin voters would have voted for Obama over Romney, in an election that is five months away, while ignoring the fact that the very same exit polling couldn't even accurately predict the results of the election that was happening that day.
If the exit polls were off by 7 points in the Walker-Barrett race, it seems reasonable that they were off by about 7 points in the Obama-Romney race, too.
So, why did the media not acknowledge that the recall election results had shown their exit polls to be worthless, rather than forge ahead with stories about the exit polls showing Obama leading Romney?
The easy answer is, in the middle of a night of bad news for the Left, liberal journalists hung onto those exit poll results like a life-raft, desperate to find some small glimpse of hope for Obama amid the wreckage of the recall election. Many delusional Democrats did the exact same thing after a skewed survey by the liberal Public Policy Polling outfit released the day before the recall vote claimed that Walker had just a 3-point lead over Barrett, within the poll's margin of error.
During his radio show Wednesday, Rush Limbaugh made the case that CNN host Wolf Blitzer did the same thing once the voting ended, joyously hyping the incorrect exit polls and then dejectedly announcing the actual results shortly thereafter.
Liberal bias has some role in why exit polls continue not to be given the skepticism they deserve but there are other likely reasons that feed into it. Money is also a factor. The nation's largest media organizations have a lot invested in their exit polling machinery. It's so expensive, in fact, that they've all actually teamed up to split the costs through a service called the National Election Pool (NEP). ABC, Associated Press, CBS, CNN, Fox News, and NBC are the only members.
To toss away their own exit poll results simply because one part of them had been shown to be less-than-accurate would be to waste money – and leave the networks with little to talk about while waiting for the actual votes to be counted. If such data were truly reliable, it would certainly be very interesting to discuss.
But the fact is that exit polling has a long record of failure and the more experienced journalists out there are well aware of this.
As liberal blogger Nate Silver has noted, exit polls by the Voter News Service, predecessor to the NEP, incorrectly predicted that Bill Clinton would win Indiana and Texas in the 1992 presidential election. Later in 2000, VNS started the Bush-Gore recount controversy by calling the state of Florida for Al Gore before the polls in the Republican western portion of the state had even closed. According to a report commissioned by CNN following the 2000 debacle, VNS exit polls incorrectly predicted the winner in eight separate states. Two separate studies indicated that Republican turnout was lower by between 3 and 4 percent thanks to GOP voters becoming discouraged that their candidate was destined to lose.
In 2002, VNS dropped the ball again by failing to provide any exit polling data on Election Night at all. That led to its eventual disbandment and the creation of the National Election Pool.
NEP has had its own record of failure as well. In 2004, bad NEP data led the media and many Democrats to erroneously believe that John Kerry was going to defeat George W. Bush in his attempt to be reelected. Bad data collection led NEP to incorrectly overestimate the John Kerry vote in 26 states. By comparison, the Bush vote was overstated in just 4 states.
Believing the bad NEP exit polls, Kerry campaign manager and perennial loser Bob Shrum even went so far as to congratulate the man he thought was a shoe-in as the next president. Shrum was far from the only Democrat led astray by NEP's false data, due to widespread uncritical reporting of the imaginary Kerry lead, many grassroots liberals on sites like Daily Kos or Democratic Underground began building up elaborate conspiracy theories about how "Bushco" had "stolen" yet another election from them.
And now we have Wisconsin.
The common denominator in each of these failures was that exit polling data is usually skewed leftward. That was the same conclusion reached by NEP itself in a secret memo to members about the 2004 failure:
“Our investigation of the differences between the exit poll estimates and the actual vote count point to one primary reason: in a number of precincts a higher than average Within Precinct Error most likely due to Kerry voters participating in the exit polls at a higher rate than Bush voters. There has been partisan overstatements in previous elections, more often overstating the Democrat, but occasionally overstating the Republican.”
More traditional polling about exit poll participation backs this conclusion up. As pollster Scott Rasmussen stated in 2008, Democrats are simply more eager to respond to exit pollsters than Republicans or independents:
The bottom line is that in every state we polled—Colorado, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia— Democrats are a lot more eager to take exit polls than Republicans.
In five of the six states, a majority of Democrats say they would be Very Likely to participate in the exit polling process. At the same time, in five of the six states, fewer than 40% of Republicans would be willing to do the same.
In every state, Republicans are at least twice as likely as Democrats to say that they are not at all willing to take an exit poll.
Unaffiliated voters tend to align more closely to Republicans in all six states in both willingness and unwillingness to participate in exit polls.
Exit poll acuracy has also been negatively impacted by the increase in mail-in voting and early voting. In the case of postal voting, surveying voters in person after they’ve cast their ballots is impossible. In the case of early voting, it is impossibly expensive to have staffers present at polling locations for days or weeks on end.
Since exit polls have to be done on Election Day, the increase in early voting also presents a disadvantage in exit polling to Republican candidates because historically (with the exception of 2008), Republicans have been more likely to take advantage of it. With fewer Republicans showing up on Election Day, the natural Democratic skew of an exit poll is likely to be even more pronounced.
Given this record of unreliability, exit polls should always be regarded with caution. TV networks that use them should frequently remind viewers that such data may not be reliable and occasionally mention their Democratic tilt. Unfortunately, such skepticism is almost entirely absent from television. In reality, it appears it will be up to conservatives to spread the word about them so that their use will be discontinued.
My hope is that as awareness of exit polls’ inaccuracy grows, we’ll see more comments like those made by CNN’s Roland Martin who tweeted at 9:21 p.m. on Tuesday a caution against paying too much attention to the exit poll results on the Obama-Romney race:
"Why are Obama supporters touting exit polls saying Obama preferred over Romney 53-42? Same exits had this race 50-50. IGNORE THOSE POLLS!" he tweeted.
Indeed. You can bet that if exit polls oversampled Republicans, this situation would not have been allowed to stand. But that's not the reality we live in.
Fortunately, it is possible to change public perception in the same way that conservatives have done with the broader topic of liberal media bias. Before groups like the Media Research Center and Accuracy in Media got started, most Americans were unaware of the pervasive liberal bias at places like CBS or the New York Times. In 2008, that had changed with 70 percent of Americans correctly believing that most journalists wanted Barack Obama to defeat John McCain.
It's time we raised similar awareness about the pervasive liberal bias and inaccuracy of exit polls.
Comments
Keep a goin' MSM - You're Helping US!
Submitted by rammingspeed on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 10:52am.
This story is out there in a very big way. The New Media (led by NB) has gotten this around, and talk radio has run far with it, as well. The MSM is a dead man walking, as it were, and they're zombie-like oblivious. This exit poll in Wisconsin story is laughably stupid because the top "professionals" are pushing what is already known to be a lie. Let them speak, so we know them for the idiots that they are.
Great job by the NM and NB
Submitted by johnsonl on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 10:57am.
for getting these stories out and explaining how the liberal media lies, omits, distorts and channels the message. These "polls" are skewed to convince us to stay home because our votes "don't count". Nothing is further from the truth.
There are lies, damned lies, statistics and polls.
Lies and Omissions
Submitted by MichMike on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 10:58am.
The MSM has shown every day, especially since the annoiting of the "one" that everything the report is either an outright lie, exceptionally misleading, or has omissions in reporting that furthers their policies (didn't think media was supposed to have policies). It is becoming clear than slowly the number of people taken in by these lies are declining. Only the simple minded or those with a stake in the continutation of our country's destruction listen to them. The dems (the repubs are only slightly better) are in deep trouble. You will see a double down on the lying with the only other strategy for dem wins being voter fraud. Maybe a few more citizens will seek out facts rather than the absolute lack of facts coming from the MSM.
Location, Location, Location
Submitted by ArcherB on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 11:09am.
I would also be curious to see WHERE they are doing their exit polling? If they do most of their polling in large cities, this will skew the results leftward as people living in large cities rely on more government services than those that live in the 'burbs or country. It's simply more efficient to have your pollsters hit various areas in the same cities than to travel to the rural areas where polling stations are more spread out and likely to receive less voters than the higher populated cities.
"To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary."
--Ernesto "Che" Guevara
That's easy, Archer.
Submitted by UpNorth on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 11:28am.
They did their polling in Madison, where the turnout was 119% of registered voters. Imagine, they had, as an example, 100,000 voters, and 119,000 voted. It's easy to exit poll those folks, except the dead ones, and come up with "Obama still leads".
Same Day Voter Registration
Submitted by Kingfish17 on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 12:18pm.
I hope Scott Walker takes on the issue of voter fraud in the same way he tackled public employee union coercion. The first place to start is same day voter registration. It should be easy to register to vote. The process that checks the accuracy of that registration should also be easy and thorough. You can't do a thorough check to protect against voter fraud if you allow same day registration and voting.
"You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas...on the taxpayer’s dime." Barack Obama
Exit Polls
Submitted by HudsonRiverGirl on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 12:28pm.
Exit polls gave us President Kerry.
Of course there was Juan Williams' continued whining that the exit polls were correct and the actual voting numbers were wrong.
If Obama is a lock
Submitted by Cactus Kurt on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 11:16am.
If Obama is a lock in Wisconsin, the Dems should just stay home on election day. It's a done deal, right?
Remember when the lib media thought Kerry had won in 2004?
Submitted by frank14 on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 11:21am.
Report Acknowledges Inaccuracies in 2004 Exit Polls
By Richard Morin and Claudia Deane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, January 20, 2005; Page A06
Interviewing for the 2004 exit polls was the most inaccurate of any in the past five presidential elections as procedural problems compounded by the refusal of large numbers of Republican voters to be surveyed led to inflated estimates of support for John F. Kerry, according to a report released yesterday by the research firms responsible for the flawed surveys.
The exit pollsters emphasized that the flaws did not produce a single incorrect projection of the winner in a state on election night. But "there were 26 states in which the estimates produced by the exit poll data overstated the vote for John Kerry . . . and there were four states in which the exit poll estimates overstated the vote for George W. Bush," said Joe Lenski of Edison Media Research and Warren Mitofsky of Mitofsky International.
The polling firms presented their findings in a much-anticipated report to the sponsors of the Election Day surveys, a consortium of news organizations that includes ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN and the Associated Press.
Throughout election night, the national exit poll showed the Massachusetts senator leading President Bush by 51 percent to 48 percent. But when all the votes were counted, it was Bush who won by slightly less than three percentage points. Larger discrepancies between the exit poll estimates and the actual vote were found in exit polls conducted in several states. At the request of the media sponsors, Mitofsky and Lenski are continuing to examine exit polling in Ohio and Pennsylvania, two critical battleground states where the poll results were off.
The differences between the final exit poll results and the vote count revived criticisms of the exit polls fueled by consecutive election-night debacles in 2000 and 2002. They also fueled assertions that the exit poll results were accurate and that it was the vote count that was flawed or deliberately manipulated to deliver the election to Bush.
The analysis found no evidence of fraud resulting from the rigging of voting equipment, a contention made repeatedly by those who question the 2004 vote.
Lenski and Mitofsky compared the exit-polling results with the final vote tally in 1,460 precincts where interviews were conducted and vote returns were available.
"Our investigation of the differences between the exit poll estimates and the actual vote count point to one primary reason: in a number of precincts a higher than average within-precinct error most likely due to Kerry voters participating in the exit polls at a higher rate than Bush voters. . . . While the size of the average exit poll error has varied [in past elections], it was higher in 2004 than in previous years for which we have data," Lenski and Mitofsky wrote.
But they acknowledged in the report that they remain at a loss to explain precisely why Bush supporters, or Republicans generally, were more likely to refuse to be interviewed than Kerry voters.
Their investigation identified other factors that contributed to errors in the 2004 exit polls. Interviewing in precincts where polltakers were required to stand farther away from the polls were less accurate than those where interviewers had easier access to voters leaving the polling places. Poor weather conditions also pushed down cooperation rates. They suspected that there were more young people working as interviewers in 2004, which they said was another potential source of error.
Adding to the confusion, programming errors were discovered and corrected in the afternoon of Election Day, and a technical problem severely disrupted access to the system for nearly two hours late on election night.
Excellent article by Sheffield/NB
Submitted by DaMav on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 11:22am.
Lots of new-to-me-info info in this one. There are still some nuggets out there though -- like how the Exits suddenly were revised to conform more closely to the emerging reality. And the "Drudge got it wrong" fiasco when he was right on the money.
In the boat and paddling furiously
Submitted by c5then on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 11:45am.
Down the river called Denial...
They so want those exit polls to be true and accurate. They really do NOT want to think about the ramifications of the polls being 6-7 points off on ALL the questions.
What happens if Wisconsin is not a blue state, and not even a swing state...what if it is a pink state and needs to be put in the "leans Romney" category?
You want to see heads start to explode? Bring this up on MSNBC.
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
God bless
Submitted by nolefan2 on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 11:48am.
Wisconsin! I was absolutely giddy about Walker's win, but not giddy enough to watch MSNBC or any of it's cronies in order to enjoy their "shock and awe." I am not surprised that the exit polls "supposedly" show that the voters say they would vote for Obama over Romney.....nor do I necessarily believe it. Obama stands for the unions.....these people just voted against the union abuses.
I don't particularly
Submitted by ThatDude on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 11:48am.
I don't particularly understand the point of exit polling beyond feeding into peoples' craving for instant information. If I just voted, then I've already participated in the only poll that actually counts. Exit pollsters can leave me alone so that I can get on with my day. Maybe it's this thought process that accounts for Republicans being less represented in their polling.
Another Explanation
Submitted by MichMike on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 11:55am.
Why do republican voters shy away from exit polls? Because the MSM and the left have so frightened people that if they vote for anyone other than democrats, they want children to starve, they are racist, and they don't care about the environment. Peer pressure is a strong intimidator. Add to this some percentage of people who agree (or kind of get caught and stuggle to say no) who did not vote for democrats telling polsters they did, for the same reasons. Isn't amazing that the party (democrat) that has contributed by far the most to poverty and racism (and are racists at a leadership level) have so itimidated so many people that they are afraid to speak their minds. And we do not see conservatives intimidating people, but the left does it daily AND WITH PRIDE. Maybe we are starting to see that turn a little but the left works against this by dilligently trying to build a larger percentage of voters that are dependent on the government and can there be any doubt that 2012 will be the culmination of decades of voter fraud refinement by the left.
A penny for your thoughts
Submitted by Unsane on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 11:57am.
I went to bed early the evening of June 5. But before I fell asleep, my CNBC app went off, proclaiming the Walker recall was "too close to call". Think of, additionally, how many people were told of this flawed polling through the Net, smartphones and apps.
"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)
The end is coming though.
Submitted by JLin on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 11:57am.
It's quite simple to understand, in light of the fact that we are subjected to a daily barrage of propaganda from an immoral and collaborative news media fully committed to our Vichy/Quisling government.
The balanced budget amendment, reform of the public schools and elimination of public unions will go a long way towards resoring the country.
If anyone watched CNN's post
Submitted by SonnyPalermo on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 12:15pm.
If anyone watched CNN's post election coverage, there was a very telling moment, when John King admitted something, in a low tone, as if he wasn't sure if it was right for him to admit it on air; paraphrasing - 'one reason for the inaccurate/uneven results of the exit poll is that conservatives don't trust the media and won't talk to us.' He looked sheepish when stating this. Anyone else catch that moment?
Also, the exit polls show a 3 point drop for Obama from the exit polls at the initial Barret/Walker election (not that you'll hear that mentioned by the lap dog media.) Only in Liberal Land would a 3 point drop be disguised as good news.
As for exit poll results skewing Dem, one factor is that Libs have time for exit pollsters, while Conservatives need to get back to work . . .
It's called "grasping at straws"
Submitted by Cappmann1962 on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 12:16pm.
The partisan pundits, the crass commentators, and the bully bosses want so badly to believe (and make everyone else believe) that this was an aberration and will have no effect on the presidential race. First they were in denial that Walker could even win (so sure of their union power). Then, they spun that the race was "too close to call" hoping for a miracle (perhaps something like several truck loads of suddenly discovered uncounted ballots). Now they're in full spin mode that this race was bought by out-of-state GOP hacks (no mention of how much Obambi spent of copious contributions that were, to say the least, suspicious). Now, they're hyping about how insignificant this recall actually was (now that they've lost).
The union thuggery didn't work, GOP contributions were far higher than DNC (shocking and unheard of), their media hype failed miserably, and their top-dog Obambi didn't even bother to show support except for a limp-wristed tweet. So now, it didn't really mean anything. "While the exit polls were flat-out wrong about this election, they're smack on about the presidential race." More straws please, we're running out...
Polling in general
Submitted by Kingfish17 on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 12:17pm.
I used to answer telephone polls. The only questions I wouldn't answer were those related to income. The way the Obama administration is run, with his "Chicago Style" Thugocracy, has made me fearful of the information that they will keep on me regarding my so called private responses to these polling inquiries. I do business with state and local and federal government. Obama's rhetoric has instilled in me a concern that I probably don't need to share my viewpoints anymore to any "anonymous" pollsters.
Maybe I'm being a chicken sh*t. I would bet that my viewpoint is more widespread then many would think.
"You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas...on the taxpayer’s dime." Barack Obama
Kingfish~
Submitted by GG_NB on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 12:32pm.
With all we know of tactics and privacy issues (i.e., remember Dems sending out the "confront your neighbors on voting -- here's a list of those to go after who did not vote" letter) and all we DON'T know about what goes on, I would say a little caution is wisdom in this case.
It's not the same world anymore. We will need to make our voices heard at the ballot box and do what we can to talk to those we trust about how important this election is, IMO. There is nothing wrong with privacy for the sake of not wanting needless harrassment. You can fight the good fight where your message can be heard and has some chance of impact.
"If not us, who? If not now, when?"
~Ronald Reagan
Not a chicken
Submitted by MichMike on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 1:06pm.
The left uses intimidation for their very existence and has shown over and over again they will use any means, including intimidation of specific individuals or groups of individuals, to gain and retain power. A single instance of their tactics, that they deploy numerous times every day, would create an firestorm of coverage if anyone they could claim was not a leftist used the same intimidation. Their corruption is total, their voters brain washed.
re: "Democrats are a lot more eager to take exit polls than Repu
Submitted by xyzzypoofs on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 12:41pm.
..."Democrats are a lot more eager to take exit polls than Republicans"
Republicans are a lot more eager to get back to work than stand around chatting with a bunch of liberal pollsters.
In the beginning, voting was always done on Tuesdays which helped the Democrats since most of the Republican voters were working and found it difficult to get to the polls on a workday.
Then states began allowing "early voting" of one week prior to elections, which started helping Republicans by allowing them to go vote at a time that was convenient for their busy work schedules.
Finally, many states are now allowing early voting up to a month ahead of elections. I can only surmise that this is an effort to allow Democrats enough time to better orchestrate the busing of voters from precinct to precinct and state to state.
Goes with my neighborhood
Submitted by gwalt on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 12:52pm.
I live in a very nice neighborhood---- that is populated by very wealthy Dem/libs.
They hold fund raisers, do yard signs, bumper stickers, etc. little do they know that I am out soliciting young voters, getting myself on civic association boards, and working quietly behind the scenes, under the radar for Conservative causes.
For career reasons, I have to lay low and won't reveal my true identity, politically speaking. Maybe they know, but we don't give any indication we are Mitt fans. During midterm elections and even during Prez years, would get frustrated by the amount of candidates I did not know anything about. So in 2010 I called the county Republican office several times and finally got enough info on " non-partisan" officials and sent out a guide. ( my liberal neighbor sent out a VERY intense, thoughtful complete analysis of the candidates --- her words--and gave her own guide----funny how none of them were Republicans---- all Dems!)
I had three people call and tell me that this was their first midterm they had ever voted in because they too were not informed enough about the little-known candidates. One woman made 50 copies and handed to her doorman who handed it to people on their way to work!!
This is how we operate---- we know the scorn and ridicule that comes with being a Conservative, so we fly low, turn off ABCCBSNBC and vote!
And no, I don't do polls. If I did, I would probably not tell the truth so why bother.
"A lot of briefing for a 2 hr. special with Dan Rather. Saw the show & wonder why we bothered". Ronald Reagan
People lie
Submitted by texasborngranny on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 1:26pm.
People lie during exit polls... ya think they just might be afraid that if they said they voter for ANY republican, they might feel the wrath of a New Black Panther, union thug, or democrat ENFORCER?
after posting the above,
Submitted by texasborngranny on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 1:48pm.
it came to me that Republicans/Conservatives/Independents all have a great appreciation for real humor and could possibly answer falsely just to see Maddows, Mathews, Schultzs, etc. heads spin violently.
Talk about great TV!!!
Devil's advocate
Submitted by Model850 on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 4:38pm.
The exit polls could be correct as regards Obama v. Romney.
There could have been scores of Dems who actually voted for Walker because of a general disgust with the whole recall circus, and who were secretly pleased with some of his efforts to balance the state's budget. But rather than risk being overheard by union thugs lied about voting for Barrett, but were truthful about their support of Obama.
Yeah, it's a stretch, and an admittedly weak scenario, but you can't discount it as completely impossible. I guess the point is, take nothing for granted as regards November (not saying that anyone here is doing that, mind you).
On Wisconsin! On America!
Submitted by berlet98 on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 6:01pm.
On Wisconsin! On America!
The debacle of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s recall, an exercise in futility and political partisanship, may be over but, as predicted here, by a million other blogsites, and on Fox News, the liberal, literal, weeping and gnashing of teeth have just begun.
In the aftermath of conservative Republican Walker soundly trouncing liberal Democrat Tom Barrett on Tuesday, thereby proving that intelligent voters realize that the Wisconsin is in dire economic straits, liberal Dems have erupted with a cascade of phony charges and threats.
Hurling unsubstantiated allegations that the GOP stole the election, that dastardy rich outsiders unduly influenced the electorate, that union members were bought, that money and not a deep-rooted sense of fiscal responsibility determined Tuesday’s outcome, Big Labor and its civil service lackeys resorted to every possible ploy to defeat Walker.
And they failed.
After shamelessly undermining the democratic process by lodging every slander short of alleging that Walker had fathered a Jesse Jackson-John Edwards-type love child, the Left was united in condemning the closely-monitored election as a fraud.
And they failed.
Wait, they did try that love child canard and it, too, flopped.
Liberals in the Badger State and in Obama’s mass media reacted to the taxpayer repudiation not by graciously accepting defeat but with an amazing display of sour grapes and continued defamation.
In two exceptional examples of disturbed hyperbole, foul-mouth leftist Ed Schultz on Obama’s MSNBC actually predicted Walker could face a criminal indictment “in the next several days” and at least one tearful Barrett supporter called Walker’s win “the end of democracy” and moaned, “democracy died tonight” on CNN.
Democracy hardly died Tuesday . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=25185.)