I Declare Paul the Winner Before the Polls Close
Pre-Fred I had time to go through the latest web start-up news at TechCrunch. I see they want to endorse a Presidential candidate and are taking the direct democracy approach with a poll. I wonder if Michael Arrington wrote,
Note that some of the campaigns (particularly Ron Paul) picked up on this yesterday from ABC’s coverage and started talking to their constituents about it. So some of the early results are skewed heavily towards those candidates. I expect over the next few days for the results to become more normalized.
with a straight face. Judging by every other online Presidential poll Rep. Ron Paul will win.
One commenter hit it on the nail:
Any online presidential poll is simply an exercise in seeing how much Ron Paul’s supporters can spaz out again.
Arrington isn’t stupid. He’s got to know Paul will probably win the “click as fast and as often as we can because we saw the poll on Digg” contest. If he wants to endorse Paul he should flat out say it. None of this faux populist, Web 2.0 poppycock.
“Who Will Be The First Tech President? Help Us Endorse A Candidate”
Disclaimer: I work for Friends of Fred Thompson, Inc.
Sort of like whenever Bill O’Reilly publishes an online poll on immigration, or any other controversial topic and then talks about the results as if they have any scientific validity regarding what the population at large thinks.
They may reflect the views of his viewers, but that’s about it. That doesn’t mean he won’t use it as ammunition on his show.