Reply #35: Catch-22

[goodhue]

The argument is wrong.
Poll ratings go up only after media attention.
Polls are essentially about name recognition.
Deans dominance in the polls came after Newsweek cover.
The majority of likely democratic primary voters are still not familiar with Kucinich.

PS show me a Dean leading poll that predates his media saturation?

Here is some analysis. I realize folks probably won't read it because it comes from that no-hoper Kucinich, but I would invite anyone who wants to think critically about the issue of media and polls to give it a look.

http://www.kucinich.us/pressreleases/pr_102903.php

Soon after Bush declared "major combat" over in Iraq, Dean saw a surge in TV coverage, with 30 mentions on the three major nightly newscasts in May alone. Kucinich wasn't mentioned at all that month.
The April 23 Gallup poll had Dean at 5% and Kucinich at 3%.

Riding a wave of heavy summer media coverage, Dean grew in the polls, while the Kucinich campaign scrambled to make the Washington press corps take notice. From June to August, Dean garnered 90 mentions on the evening news, while Kucinich received a total of 2. By the summer's end, Time magazine had discovered "The Dean Factor"—while Joe Klein, its political columnist, labeled Kucinich a "vanity" candidate. (To be distinguished, Klein claimed, from "serious candidates who have yet to catch fire," like Lieberman and Edwards.)