I had a green coat once ... I loved that coat, but I left that coat in the balcony of the Wynewood Theater after watching Lady and the Tramp back in 1975. I got over the loss of that coat after being picked up in my step dads '72 Buick Century where the over-active heater had the cab of the car at just below inferno temperatures. That green coat was just another item added to the list of things that I thought I could not do without (Feressa Plouche being another), but did not actually feel robbed when I had to. That coat hopefully went to some good and Feressa should be getting out on parole any day now - God Bless her.
Among the latest political fallout is the Zogby poll commissioned by a documentary producer to go along with his film, Media Malpractice ... How Obama Got Elected. From the information promoting the film and website, the premise of the total effort is to proclaim that from the survey sample, a large degree of Obama supporters were driven by the media and conversely since the media is so enamored with PE Obama that their coverage has blinded the people and driven them to make uninformed decisions. The fallout of gathering and publishing the information as they did is much more wide-spread than that. Since this poll, its results, and the future of the documentary would never thrive without media assistance, then it is subject to media interpretation. Unfortunately, some media outlets will spin these poll results to their agenda and will take some of the most ordinary answers and cast some poor aspersions on people that don't really deserve it. Worst yet, some interpretation have been taken as if PE Obama was elected by the mindless of our nations population.
In the YouTube snippet posted on the site, there are some people that don't know the answers to some general news-of-the-day type questions and true they seem more knowing of the issue that were repeated during the campaign, most media driven, but very local. 512 voters is hardly a cross-section of the actual votes that were cast for the President-Elect. I don't have an issue with skirting the facts for comedy sake or to make a joke, but this is one of those cases where better judgement should have been exercised. With unchecked authority or proper sampling, the results of this poll could be used to undermine the national confidence in a man that is the tip of the sword for what this country will be for the next four years.
Nate Silver, of fivethirtyeight.com, stated that the poll got stupid answers because it asked stupid questions. Coming from a guy who makes a living on publishing polls, I have to agree. Looking further into the poll really shows how the context of this poll, as benign as the questions and answers are, have been raked over the coals to tough on the more base nature of the comments that are being made by the public at large. Comments that somehow attribute Obama's win solely to people of color (the poll numbers refute that), or that the majority of Obama voters were poor or uneducated (the poll also shows that to be untrue).
So say what you may about how the President-Elect has come to be the President-Elect, fact is that he is and it took more than minorities, low-income, or poorly educated to do so. The media, as powerful and broad-reaching as it is can not put a man in office (were that the case Al Gore would have had a turn).
True ... the poll and documentary has shown that there were/are some uninformed voters. True ... my heart sank just a bit to see the people of color on the video that were not prepared to represent for the first man of color in office. They may be portrayed as less than adept, but the poll shows that they interviewed hardly any NASCAR fans (i mean ... if you really want to show some less-than-smartness (sic) Talledega would seem like a good place to start).
So, I lamented about that coat for all of 30 minutes ... When Feressa figured she had a shot with Rodney Allen Rippy, I was devastated for about ... 30 minutes ... Al Gore and Florida, maybe a day or about as long as it took to realize I had to go back to work. You will have your chance to say I told you so in four years. Plain and simple ... get over it. The healing starts now.
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