The unimportant AP story from Sunday, August 31 can be found HERE. It deals with international interest in the California Recall, but it contains these paragraphs:
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Republican front-runner, has dominated the world’s headlines, though the most recent poll shows him far behind the leading Democratic hopeful in the Oct. 7 recall.The new poll, conducted by the Los Angeles Times, has Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante with 35 percent support among likely voters, compared with 22 percent for Schwarzenegger.
Remember, this story was published today (August 31). This “new” Los Angeles Times poll was released a week ago, on Sunday, August 24. The poll was finished a full ten days ago, on August 21, which is two days before candidate Bill Simon decided he was no longer running.
The results of the week old Times poll were far out of synch with those of every poll taken previous to it, and also with every poll taken since. As reported here and in the RSN, the poll was pulled out of a punctured hat.
This old poll was cited on this morning’s Talk Shows — This Week and Late Edition in particular — as proof positive that Cruz Bustamante was leading Schwarzenegger. “The latest major poll,” it was called. If the Times poll is the only major poll, and it still has merit a week after its release, the Schwarzenegger should have been leading in last week’s Times poll. He was leading a week before that.
Some people love their illusions.
