THE CPT ILLUSTRATED PRESIDENTIAL POLL OF 2008 - YOU DECIDE!

I am sick of reading and hearing about the polling nonsense every day concerning the presidential election. How many times do the political pundits have to prove how stupid they can be? Political polls in the media have about the same degree of accuracy as the weather man and we all know a single digit IQ qualifies you to be a meterologist.

So we are having our own poll and we are declaring the accuracy to be within 1 to 3% of the accuracy of all those political polls in our face every morning. While they claim statistical accuracy because they use voting age, eligible voters, registered voters and likely voters or whatever might be the fad that morning, we claim statistical accuracy because we simply don't care.

They have a poll sample of between 300 and 2000. Now how in the world can 300-2000 interviews tell you what 300 million people think? So we are conducting a single interview assuming our single citizen does indeed represent a cross section of America. We are going to interview Hillbilly Joe from Coltons Point.

Now some Coltons Pointers are not big on reading, Hillbilly being among them so we are going to use pictures to ask questions in hopes of getting coherent responses. Here is our first Illustrated Presidential Poll of 2008.

CPT: Who do you like for president between these two characters?

Hillbilly: That's it? Those are my only choices? What ever happened to the great American heroes like Ronald Reagan or John Wayne. What happened to America?

CPT: These are the choices the people decided on during the primaries.

Hillbilly: Must be more idiots in America than I thought. Daddy is right, we are being overrun.

CPT: So I guess you are undecided. Which one of these two has the image you want for your president?

Hillbilly: That ain't right man. Somthing just ain't right. Where is my old bomb shelter? We are in deep shit!

CPT: That's okay Hillbilly. How about their position on war, which one is closer to your stand on war of these two?

Hillbilly: Good Lord, are we being punished by Divine Providence or what? One wants to fight and one wants to run. One wants to fight forever and one wants to stop in 16 months. Ain't there no happy medium? Can't we just kick some ass and get it over with like the good old days?

CPT: So you must disagree. How about on the economy?

Hillbilly: What the hell do they know about the economy? They're both on federal welfare aren't they? Both US Senators. And both live off their rich women. McCain should retire to Bora Bora while he can still enjoy his wife and Obama should retire to Hollywood where he can really make some big bucks in movies about presidents.

CPT: So who do you want for president?

Hillbilly: Good thing I ain't got no kids. They'd be cursed by the choices we make this generation. The people didn't nominate these dudes, the media did! So I say pass a law and make the network media stars liable for the next president. Whatever happens they are to blame, not us!

CPT: So who are you going to vote for?

Hillbilly: Are you crazy? I'd lose my lifetime Redneck membership if I backed either one. Ole McCain changes position every day and I ain't got a clue what Obama's position is to begin with. It's like Clinton and Bush. They all came from the same place, speak the same double talk, and think the American public has been taking stupid pills for life!

CPT: What place is that Hillbilly?

Hillbilly: You know, Yale, Harvard, those uppity, uppity Ivy League schools where they are brainwashed from birth. I ain't registered to vote and I ain't voting and that's all there is to it! Now leave me alone dude, I'm going to see Rambo 5 at the movies.

Who Can You Trust?

So we gave you our pick for the Queen of Network News Diane Sawyer, the Kentucky girl who rules ABC News. Diane proved that beauty and brains can be combined when she won the America's Junior Miss scholarship pageant and went on to break down all the doors of television news for women becoming the highest paid woman in network news.

However, not even that is good enough for the CPT Who Do You Trust? honor. The person must demonstrate a strict adherence to the ancient rules of journalism where you are objective, fair, unbiased, and never ever try to advocate a political philosophy or cause. Diane stands alone on network TV in this regard.

Today we are announcing the winner of the cable news Who Do You Trust? honor and once again beauty and brains are packaged in the Queen of Cable News, Robin Meade, anchor of CNN Express morning news. Robin was Miss Ohio and a Miss America finalist and went on to broadcast journalism in Ohio, Florida and Chicago before joining CNN.


You can find her every morning lighting up CNN Headline news where most CNN news personalities will put you to sleep. Many shows on CNN, Fox, MSNBC and whoever claim to be fair, unbiased and no spin but they are liars of course and all have an agenda to push on the unsuspecting public from right wing to left wing, conservative to liberal, and I for one am sick of hearing them tell me what to think.

You want a refreshing, upbeat news report go to Diane or Robin. They stand alone in preserving journalistic integrity. Interesting that they came from neighboring midwestern states.

Obama Conquers Europe - Is America Next?

Over 200,000 Germans watch as Obama walks along the podium on his way to address the world. It was the highlight of his whirlwind trip from Afganistan to Iraq, Israel to Germany to France and England.

Memo to John McCain: Stop whining and start giving us a reason to take you more seriously than Obama. Ever since Obama left for the war zones and Europe McCain has been complaining about the press coverage, complaining about the policies Obama has announced, complaining about being assigned the junior varsity of the news corps since all the media stars were with Obama in Europe and complaining about every word uttered by Obama on the trip.

His "good old boy" approach to the campaign does nothing to tell us why he should be elected as the most powerful person in the world, how he will improve the image of America around the world, or how he will end the wars and stop all the special interests who are running and funding his campaign. We need solutions to problems. We need a leader who can motivate us to do good. We need a president who will go after the crooks in our financial, oil, medical, pharmaceutical, entertainment and media industries.

I thought it was pretty amazing to see an American speaking to over 200,000 Germans in Berlin and being applauded. When I see polls that say two-thirds of Europeans want Obama to be the next president I think the fact the rest of the world is taking such an interest in our election is an indication of the power of the United States and the role they hope to see for America in leading the world.

Think about it, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and England have been around about a thousand years longer than the USA. Yet in all their amazing history they have never had a minority leader, whether president, prime minister, king or queen. Only the USA, the newest kid on the block, has taken such a quantum leap forward to be seriously considering electing the first minority president in world history in a Western democratic or capitalistic society.

The people of the world stand in awe of our political system that practices what it preaches, that all people are free and everyone has an equal opportunity to be president. I happen to think that is quite extraordinary and our founding fathers should be smiling down on the land of freedom and opportunity they helped create.

There are one hundred days until the election. Both candidates have plenty of time and money to make their case to be the next leader of our nation. Let us hope they use that time and money to give us positive reasons to elect them, not negative reasons to not elect their opponent.

The United States is the sole world super power because we can stand united behind a cause for good, be more creative and innovative than any other nation when we set our mind to it, and we are the most compassionate and caring people on Earth. As long as the world is watching with such interest, let us give them an election they will never forget.



Not to be outdone by Obama, McCain is shown here meeting with the Dali Lama while Obama was meeting with the Germans, French and English. He used the occasion with this man of peace to blast Obama for his trip and to challenge the images of the wonderful reception he received in Europe.

WHY MEDIA POLLS FAIL – THE CREDIBILITY COLLAPSE!

We are halfway through the silly season of the never-ending campaign for president and it is time to take a look around at all the damage that has been done. How do we do that? Well the media and politicians use a clever technique called polling to keep us informed of what we think and the big question is does it really do that? No!

Wake up media and stop trying to sway the American public opinion. It has been 40 years since I started developing campaign polling and demographic databases and the one constant through eight presidents is nothing has changed. The American people will always make up their own mind and if you try to influence them your polls will be the same disaster as always.

So why should the news media care? Because the credibility of the media is just as poor as the credibility of the president, congress and corporate America and those reporting the news should not be considered a joke. If I didn’t care about the reputation of the media I would not care, although the extreme efforts of some media to distort the public will does provide some form of entertainment.

News reporting is a protected privilege in America, it is even protect by the Constitution in the Bill of Rights. But along with such privileged status comes responsibility, the responsibility to not abuse your rights and many of the media seem to forget.

What is the purpose of polls? Polls are a snap shot at that moment of time in reaction to a specific question. No more no less. The more objective the question the more objective and honest will be the answer. The more scientific the pool of people polled the more accurate the results.

Every day political news reporters try to apply the results of daily polls to what will happen in the future. For example, they tell us McCain is equal to Clinton or Obama in the fall election. Such extrapolation is nonsense and the media knows better. When you hear such things just know there is a hidden agenda by those making such silly reports.

This is May, not November, and many people have not even started thinking about the general election. We don’t even have the final candidates for the general election. My years of polling experience have shown people wait until September to start thinking seriously about the general election.

Any poll done at this time when the final candidates are not selected and they are not running against each other could be 20-25% inaccurate. So why does the media continue reporting these results? They know better.

The only polls accurate right now are those concerning the public sentiment and they foreshadow serious change this fall. More than two-thirds of the public think the country is headed in the wrong direction, more than two-thirds think Bush is doing the wrong things, and more than two-thirds think congress is just as misguided. Barring some unforeseen catastrophe no Republican can win the presidency this year.

If McCain is running even at this time it is only because the public does not know Obama well enough and know Clinton too well. When two-thirds of the public is opposed to the direction of the country and to President Bush, and McCain is the Bush standard-bearer, Hillary should be light years ahead of McCain, not just even in the polls. Obviously the public knows her too well.

Also, there is no way the results in one state mean the same thing will happen in another state as the people of West Virginia are far different than those in Mississippi or Iowa, just as New York is different than California. Polls can also be very distorted if the people surveyed are not registered to vote, or even if they are registered does that mean they will actually vote.

If a poll is of “eligible voters” it will be wrong for 50% of eligible voters are not even registered to vote. If a poll is of “registered voters” it could also be 50% wrong for half of the registered voters are not going to vote. If a poll is of actual voters based on their actual voter record then it is getting close to right but very few polls ever attempt to identify those most likely to vote, thus polls are consistently off though the media would have you believe otherwise.

There is a final distortion of poll results if the caller identifies who employs them for if they say it is a Washington Post poll for example some people are going to be inclined to answer the way they think the “media” wants them to answer. People do not want to feel stupid so they might just make up answers, especially on issues they do not know.

As a result the economy will always be the number one issue and specifically jobs within the economy. Gas prices will follow closely. Many people will list the environment as a key issue having no clue why that is so. Global warming and related issues are too complex for most people to understand. Foreign policy will always be way down the list unless there is a war with a lot of deaths and still it will remain far behind the economy and crime.

Immigration is a quite disruptive issue as the media loves to play up the controversy but in truth it is not much of a real issue because 85% of all American citizens identify themselves as a person of foreign ancestry for example French-American, Irish-American, German-American, Hispanic-American, and African-American. That means only 15% of our citizens consider themselves genuine Americans and that is really how it should be and is. How could a nation of immigrants hate immigrants? Only the media can make that happen.

The bottom line is this. If you believe the polls published by the media you are as crazy as the media. On the other hand, if you really want to see a meaningful poll the following are the latest results from a Harris Poll on the Confidence of the American Public in our institutions.

The Harris Poll® #22, February 28, 2008

(Percent of the public having a great deal of confidence in the major institutions.)

The Military 51%, Small Business 47%, Major Educational colleges & universities 32%, Medicine 28%, The US Supreme Court 25%, Organized Religion 25%, Public Schools 20%, The Courts & Justice system 16%, Television News 16%, The White House 15%, Major Companies 14%, Organized Labor 11%, Wall Street 11%, The Press 10%, Law Firms 10% and Congress 8%.

It would appear the general public already know what they think of the media and their polls when 84% of our citizens do not have a great deal of confidence in Television news, and they have even less confidence in The White House, Major companies, Organized Labor, Wall Street, The Press, Law Firms, with Congress bringing up the rear in terms of the American institution with the least confidence of the American citizens.

TODAY’S TOP MEDIA SCAM – AMERICAN IDOL VOTERS

The American public has been getting conned by the media for far too long and since we have all become to desensitized to realize when we are victims the Coltons Point Times is going to give you the truth. Today’s con artist is Fox Television and the wildly popular American Idol show with a great deal of help from the news media of all networks.

Last night the three surviving contestants were reduced to the final two, both Davids (Archuleta and Cook), as over 56 million votes were cast by viewers according to the show. This morning on the various morning news shows the 56 million voters were mentioned over and over again but did anyone explain the vote? Nope.

Not to take anything away from the show because it is a slick production but American Idol is no amateur contest like it is billed and there are not 56 million people voting as the media would have you believe. Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts went so far as to say at least more people voted for president in America.

Guess what Robin and the rest of the news media, there are not 56 million voters because each person can vote ten times and then call back and vote again. It’s possible just 5.6 million people voted. The Idol producers are careful not to mention individual totals or the number of actual voters, the results would be far less impressive.

The fact is each week there are fewer people watching American Idol as the regional fan favorites get dumped one at a time. We are now left with the two Davids, one from Utah and one from Missouri. Kids from all major media markets have been eliminated which could explain the loss of ratings.



Last night 22.24 million people watched the 1st half hour and 25 million watched the 2nd half hour. The numbers are down from earlier in the season and from last year although they did increase slightly over last week. Last week 21.8 million people watched last Tuesday's competition, the smallest Tuesday audience in more than five years. The show did better the last Wednesday with 22.9 million, but that was the smallest Wednesday audience in three years, according to Nielsen Media Research.

While it is still the number one show on television the loss of 7 million viewers over the years would indicate the public is tiring of it. Part of that may be caused by the fact the kids are no longer kids and the amateurs are no longer amateurs as most of the top ten finalists came equipped with voice coaches, previous record deals, previous records released, years of performances and a team of advisors making this a lot more like a casting call of professional singers for a Broadway Show than an amateur talent competition.

Long ago when there were 24 competitors the Coltons Point Times predicted the top two males and females and our four picks finished four out of the top 5. Our number one pick, David Archuleta, the 17 year old from Utah is in the last two. Next week we will know.