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Watching Fox. Two things really clear. Biden and Levin just hate "cut and run" and are starting something new--"walk and talk." Just like the President says.

Second thing is they are angling every which way to spin and make Iraq a defeat. Our replacing Maliki is a dumb idea by Biden who IMHO is long on psychopathy and short on intelligence.

Things not said that are true. Machiavelli said 500 years ago when you replace an existing order you have great difficulties because those replaced resist fiercely and those who will replace are diffident since they are unaware of the real benefits accruing to them.

Besides that we face two crowd dynamics. The first is a surplus of men of military age with nothing to do and hopes for power. Every study shows a high birth rate augurs for military aggressiveness. Not certain but probable.

Two, we are facing a common dynamic police call a "domestic." We come upon two warring parties and separate them or secure one and then find the other attacks us. Hostile people want to actualize their hostility and will look for every venue possible and strangers or authority is the very best target.

Finally, I know it seems iconoclastic but most people are involved with their families, friends and work associates. Only a minority take much interest in either politics or foreign policy. All these polls are measuring something important to the political elite and hangers on but there is no reservoir demanding a regime change in the US. Most people queried will answer off the top of their head whatever doesn't appear stupid or whatever looks like it will please the pollster. It is the moral hazard of making polls rather than positions the subjects inquiry.

Only a minority take much interest in either politics or foreign policy. All these polls are measuring something important to the political elite and hangers on but there is no reservoir demanding a regime change in the US. Most people queried will answer off the top of their head whatever doesn't appear stupid or whatever looks like it will please the pollster. It is the moral hazard of making polls rather than positions the subjects inquiry.

You got that right, got that right, got that right.

And especially in these midterms, most Americans, busy carrying this country on their backs, working the economy, raising the soldiers and citizens of our future, only pay attention, if at all, during the last week or so of the midterms. So when asked, they just say anything.

My own daughter, who I'd consider a little politcally in tuned, tells me recently that she's not going to bother to vote in the midterms. "Maryland doesn't have any interesting races" she says primly.

Why I like to have a cow right on the spot. "STEELE!" I shout. "EHRLICH!" I shout again. I warn her that if she doesn't want sweet Kaitlyn Mae, her daughter, to wear a burqua she needs to help keep the Senate Republican.

Well she hadn't even thought of the Steele thing going on.

She's not a stupid child, please understand. She's doing her best to raise a toddler, moving to another place (the DELMARVA area) for a better area to raise her child, helping her husband earn the money and saving for a house of her own. I know for sure she'll vote now but I am just flabberghasted. Merryland has no interesting races?

It's how the average folk out here in la-la see the midterms. Come time to vote I suspect a bunch of people are going into the voting booth and I suspect they are NOT going to turn over this country to the Democrats, I know it in my bones.

Meanwhile, the pollsters are polling people much like my own daughter, offspring of a political junkee mind you, and they are simply not paying attention. Watch those vapid margins disappear in the upcoming two weeks.

It's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Nothing like getting back to basics that are all too often ignored, brilliant post her shrinkermd!

I especially liked;

...Biden who IMHO is long on phychopathy and short on intelligence.... ...

a surplus of men of military age with nothing to do and hopes of power....and

...hostile people who want to actualize their hostility...strangers are their best target.

Brilliant stuff here.

Most people queried will answer off the top of their head whatever doesn't appear stupid or whatever looks like it will please the pollster.

^^^^^

Something that has been rattling around in my brain for a while, looking for words, became clear yesterday afternoon when another pollster called me.

We know that pollsters "adjust" their polls to reflect demographics, but how do they choose which respondents to keep in the poll and which to discard.

For example, in my age, sex, party, and income category, do they keep my answers in their database, or hope to find another respondent who gives 'better' answers.

I am quite sure that there are more people in my demographic group (retired) answering the phone who might have 20 minutes to spare than in many of the other profiles.