Reply #56: the clincher is dead -- long live the clincher!

[OnTheOtherHand]

We seem to have moved on right sharp. Forget about that Gore/Bush thing, it was so 2005. Now we're going to examine the approximately 35% of respondents who indicated that they had been contacted by the Bush and/or Kerry campaigns, and infer that they demonstrate "equivalence." (Note to anax: within this group, about 38% indicated that they had been contacted by both campaigns, which makes one wonder -- on your interpretation of the question -- whether the parties are so proficient at identifying their base after all. (Edited to clarify that there was only one GOTV question.))

Sorry, folks, but I just don't think that particular clincher is going to work for you. Care to try again?

And then there was that odd bit where anax apparently changed "Gore voter" to "Democrat" and hoped no one would notice. Where did I claim that the defection rate was higher among Democrats in 2004 than in 2000? Why would I have to claim this? And how does this line of reasoning lead to the conclusion that Kerry won the popular vote? (And WTF do suburban soccer moms have to do with any of it? Talk about red herrings.)

If anyone actually has questions about all this, please feel free to direct them to me. Mere reason avails little in the face of self-referential certainty.