Polls, closeted Democratic voters, Tennessee

[murdoch]

There probably aren't a lot of links to the conservative Instapundit blog on DU, but Reynolds does bring up an interesting issue recently ( http://instapundit.com/archives/032962.php ) about the Tennessee election. In telephone polls where a human asks the questions, the Democrat, Ford, is shown as losing. But when a computer asks the polling questions, Ford is shown as winning.

On Instapundit and other blogs, it is then discussed how the popular wisdom is when a black Democrat like Ford runs for office, some white voters might claim they will vote for him so as to not sound racist to the poll-taker, but in the voting booth will then vote against him. In this case however, the closeted people seem to be the people who will be voting Democratic, but fear to admit it to anybody.

There is discussion of red state and blue state on many of these blogs, but I always thought red and blue dichotomy were silly for a number of reasons. CNN 2004 election polls showed the majority of those making under $50,000 voted Democratic (becoming more Democratic the less they earned), and the majority of those making over $50,000 voted Republican, with them becoming more Republican the more they "earned" (regarding the high-end of that curve, I know Wall Street calls the dividends it sends out "earnings", but heirs or whoever collecting dividend checks have hardly earned that money). Anyhow, for reasons of class, race, religion, or regionality, some people might be afraid to admit to others that they are going to flip the switch for the black Democrat in November.

[Eric J in MN]

1. If we had "Air America Radio" stations on FM...

...in every big-and-medium city in the US, then we'd have more proud Democrats throughout America.

Right now there are two AAR stations in TN, one in Memphis and one in Chattanooga, both AM.

If any millionaires are reading this, please contact Sheldon Drobny about expanding AAR.

[murdoch]

2. And don't forget Pacifica

Pacifica is a nationwide radio network ( http://www.pacifica.org ) which has good shows. Some shows, like Amy Goodman's Democracy Now, are syndicated beyond Pacifica to college radio stations and the like.

One good thing about Pacifica is it is listener-sponsored, so they never have to worry about corporate sponsors. Of course, there are advantages to AA as well. When I have the radio on, I usually switch between my local Pacifica station and Air America depending on which show is on.

[nickshepDEM]

3. Here in BLUE Maryland we dont even get AAR.

Im stuck with WBAL, which I like for local politics, but if you dont have your bullshit protectors on, you could get sucked into the other side.