Return of the Bradley Effect: What if ALL the Polls Are Wrong?

PJ Media ^ | 06/06/12 | Roger L. Simon

[TonyInOhio]

Many of us oldsters remember the Bradley Effect. Back in ye olde 1982, Tom Bradley, the longtime popular mayor of Los Angeles, a nice affable fellow in my recollection, ran for California governor against a fairly faceless guy named George Deukmejian. Most of the polls — including exit polls — showed Bradley with a significant lead. But Deukmejian won, narrowly.

This was all put down to a form of covert racism. People didn’t want to admit they wouldn’t vote for a black man. As an ex-civil rights worker, I remember being hugely depressed by Bradley’s defeat.

Times have changed. These days the significant racism emanates mainly from atrocious reactionary bigots and race baiters of the Al Sharpton ilk.

AdvertisementBut the Bradley Effect has resurfaced dramatically in a different manner in the Wisconsin recall vote. The polls — and, yes, the exit polls as well – were showing Scott Walker in a narrow victory. But he won beyond anyone’s prediction.

Apparently, the silent majority of Wisconsin voters didn’t want to admit to nosy pollsters and anyone else that might be listening that they were opposed to runaway unions, runaway spending, or the Democratic administration. They just wanted to cast their votes. And they did.

This Bradley Effect, then, is not like the Bradley Effect of yore. It’s about race to some degree, but I suspect there are much larger components of being fed up with elites of all sorts, interest groups, media groups, union groups, all sorts of groups telling the average citizen what he should and shouldn’t think, openly or covertly threatening to ostracize him or her for not going along with the pervasive liberal status quo. This was a cry of “Ya, basta!”

So if I were a member of the Democratic Party this morning, if I were David Axelrod and his team of so-called wise men, I would be wondering – what if all the polls are wrong? What if this is true across the entire country?

Even if these polls are wrong by three or four points in only a handful of states, the results of the coming election could be disastrous for the Democrats. Romney could win in a walk and bring a Republican House and Senate with him. And then, if the economy revives….

You can bet that many Democratic politicians are scratching their heads. Is it time to desert Barack Obama before it’s too late? (Bill Clinton evidently did long ago.) How many of them are suddenly going to be going Blue Dog?

(Surprisingly, Charles Krauthammer, of all people, missed the point on Fox when he pointed to Obama’s nine-point lead in Wisconsin exit polls as indication the state would not be in play in the presidential election. It was those same exit polls that said the recall election would be close.)

And needless to say, the mainstream media are going to be doing mental cartwheels, trying to think of ways to spin this. It’s not going to be easy. The sons and daughters of Grub Street are going to have to explain away a horrendous economy. They invented Barack Obama (quite literally); now they are going to have to live with him.

And make no mistake about it — this election was only partly about Wisconsin. It was about the state of the nation. All eyes were glued on it.

Sure, people are tired of public sector unions holding the taxpayer hostage. Why wouldn’t they be? But they’re tired of a lot more than that. This is only the beginning.

[arthurus]

Obama is, indeed, in trouble big time.
America is in trouble big time because the alternative to the kenyan is Romeny. The election will replace an explicitly Marxist socialism with a managerial socialism. Mussolini beating Lenin would not improve things too terribly much.

[Pollster1]

Resources and triage are always considerations, but contesting those states improves our chances of taking extra House/Senate seats as well. It’s worth trying and doesn’t take much more in terms of resources, since Obama would also be spreading his resources over more territory.

[arthurus]

With the ubiquity of cell phone cameras and surveillance in general your answer to the pollster is almost certainly recorded and will get back to the folks who have retribution in mind. It is not smart to tell a pollster something you don’t want your shop steward to know.

[Eleutheria5]

Lie to the pollsters. Lie about white candidates. Lie about black candidates. Lie about purple, polka-dotted candidates with green hair and three eyes in the middle of both their foreheads. Do not ever say one true word to a pollster, regardless of race, color, creed or sexual orientation of the candidate.

[Gulf War One]

They may be in even bigger trouble than they think. Stop & consider whether or not Bill Clinton's sabotage is more designed to aids his wife's chances now, or to choke off BHO's fundraising.

Retaking control of the party from the Soros far left is not something that can be done overnight. However, dealing them a crushing defeat in this cycle certainly helps the more centrist donks in the longer term. This is a really interesting election.

[SaxxonWoods]

I’ve been writing this for months. People are staying quiet about Obama because they don’t want to be harrassed and called racists. They will quietly go to the polls and vote this man out of office in November.

Yes Virginia, there is a Bradley effect, only this election it’s the Obama effect.

[usconservative]

Romney (yuck! Is that really the best the GOP could do???) should consider WI in play and campaign hard there.

You're exactly correct. Someone from the Romney campaign should've paid more attention to what was happening and seeing the Walker win last night, should've made damn' sure Romney was in Wisconsin this morning standing side by side with Walker.

The fact that Romney's campaign isn't that "on the ball" with what's happening and Romney himself isn't on the ground in Wisconsin this morning speaks volumes to his campaign staff's ineptness.

BTW: KUDOS to my friends north of the Cheddar Curtain from a poor FIB stuck here in the People's Socialist RepubliK of the Sick and Illannoyed. Well done!!!

[usconservative]

I’ve been writing this for months. People are staying quiet about Obama because they don’t want to be harrassed and called racists. They will quietly go to the polls and vote this man out of office in November.

GMTA. Exactly right. Been saying the same thing since Obama got elected. Predicted on election day 2008 he'd be so bad that he'd make Jimmy Carter look good by comparison. (I think many here said the same thing on/about election day 2008 as well. It didn't take a rocket scientist to see this abysmal failure of a "President" coming.)

I've been push-polled at least 5 times now and I'll tell you outright I lie through my teeth to these pollsters. All in the hope that come Nov. 7th the lamestream liberal media wakes up with so much egg on their faces that even the most hardcore media brainwashed idiot finally wakes up.

Realistic, probably not --- but I can dream can't I?

[ME-262]

Governor George Deukmejian was great! He cut the Budget and mailed the surplus back to the taxpayers before the legislature could come up with a way to spend it. We would have made that man King if he had run for it.

[usconservative]

Surprisingly, Charles Krauthammer, of all people, missed the point on Fox when he pointed to Obama’s nine-point lead in Wisconsin exit polls as indication the state would not be in play in the presidential election. It was those same exit polls that said the recall election would be close.

I caught Krauthammer saying that too and shook my head in disbelief that he'd miss such a simple, elegant point as you made.

BTW, have you noticed (as I have .... ) that the pollsters have stopped asking specifically WHO likely voters are intending to, or committed to voting for? The polls that I've been paying attention to focus on LIKEABILITY, which tend to give Obama higher marks than Romney.

I've been "push-polled" at least 5 times in the last 45 days here in IL. The last three times there were no questions on who I "intended" to vote for or who I was "leaning" towards. All the questions were slanted towards LIKEABILITY of Obama and UNFAVORABLE ratings of Romney.

Sure I played along and told them what they wanted to hear. What I'm going to do in the voting booth on Nov. 6th is completely different however.

[MHGinTN]

I suspect a significant number of union members used your strategy in the WI voting. Whom they voted for ‘was another matter’, different from the dictates of the union thuggery bosses.

[Notary Sojac]

Any number of Freepers were all over this with the Bradley effect in 2008. It was gonna elect McCain, and the polls were all wrong.

Actual result:

Polls - 1

Delusional Freepers - 0

And please, you don't wanna hear my rant about the "PUMAs" either.....

[MileHi]

People are staying quiet about Obama because they don’t want to be harrassed and called racists.

Just so. It gets old arguing with hysterical leftists. The ballot box is nice and quiet and you can express your true opinion there.

Take care amigo!

[redpoll]

>>>Lie to the pollsters. Lie about white candidates. Lie about black candidates. Lie about purple, polka-dotted candidates with green hair and three eyes in the middle of both their foreheads. Do not ever say one true word to a pollster, regardless of race, color, creed or sexual orientation of the candidate.<<<

Yes, I know that the Lord and I may have a long conversation about this in the next life, but I’ve done this with practically every pollster stopping by my house or calling me up in the past 20 years. In 2008, I even gave the phone to my 7-year-old son to answer questions on a robocall survey. And if there are two of us, I’d imagine that there are many more.

[usconservative]

I suspect a significant number of union members used your strategy in the WI voting.

I had read Monday here on FR that about 50% of Wisconsin's AFSCME members had opted out of the union and no longer had dues deducted from their paychecks, and 1/3 of WI teachers did the same, opting out of the WI Teachers Union. It didn't take much logic or reason to conclude these folks weren't going to vote to recall Walker and that the polls showing Barret closer to Walker than the outcome showed to be incorrect.

BTW: I predicted here on FR yesterday morning at 8:35AM Florida time (while I was still on vacation) that Walker would win by 9. He won by just over 8%. Not bad considering my only sources of knowledge for the WI election were the Wall Street Journal and Freepers posting from within Wisconsin.

[Strategerist]

The average of the polls prior to the election was PRECISELY correct, and the ACTUAL CNN consortium exit poll results were only off by a little bit.

Again you have to distinguish between the REPORTING ON THE POLLS and the ACTUAL POLLS themselves.

Scientific polls, be they prior to the election or exit polls, are uncannily accurate now. It’s virtually unheard of for the “polls to be wrong” except in very rare circumstances (a primary with 3+ candidates where voters are changing their opinion day to day, etc.)

Which is why elections have become so easily predictable.

[VRW Conspirator]

if I were David Axelrod and his team of so-called wise men, I would be wondering – what if all the polls are wrong? What if this is true across the entire country?

The right question. This is what is scaring the dickens out of the DNC.

[1010RD]

Only Krauthammer respects Krauthammer. He sits on that show pontificating and can’t wait to collect his check. He’s so unimpressive. He’s a media creation - gravitas - joke.

[Sgt_Schultze]

The more Republicans who avoid or anti-Freep exit polls the better. As long as the left thinks it's handily won or is close, they won't have to hold back reporting results while they invent ballots to show up late.

Plus there is that sweet benefit of watching the actual tears of vanquished, invested leftists.

[CommerceComet]

There might be a Bradley effect with Romney as well. Like Bradley and Wilder, Romney seems to poll better than his actual election returns. With the two African-Americans, it was assumed that people were afraid of being viewed as racist. Isn’t it possible that Romney’s Mormonism might produce the same effect among Republicans?