Ron Paul, Killed With Polls? Death By Media Weapons
By Al Cronkrite The Covenant News ~ January 04, 2008
The headline on the second page of our local newspaper (New York Times owned.) read “POLL FINDS BUSH, SEN..CLINTON ARE THE MOST ADMIRED MAN, WOMAN”. The first paragraph of the article reads, “They’re the odd couple again: George Bush and Hillary Clinton, the most admired man and woman in America.” That finding seems strange considering both George W. and Hillary drag around a considerable well publicized dark side.
Admired is defined as regarded “with wonder, delight, and pleased approval, to have high regard for.”
The body of the article explains that the poll asked an open ended question of 1011 adults in mid-December. I assume that means they called these individuals on the telephone and asked them something like; What man and women in American did you most admire in the year 2007?
The responses were diverse, Hillary got 18 percent, Oprah Winfrey got 16 percent, Bush got 10 percent, former President Bill Clinton got 8 percent, former Vice-President Al Gore got 6 percent, Barack Obama got 5 percent, Laura Bush and Angelina Jolie each got 3 percent. The remaining 31 percent was scattered among government figures, movie stars, friends, relatives, and Queen Elizabeth who was in the top ten.
My first question regarding this USA Today Gallup poll is whether the responses are really people that are admired or merely individuals with whom the person was most familiar. Admiration is quite different from familiarity. Those interviewed were actually prompted to respond with the first name that came to mind. That prompting would tend to result in familiarity rather than admiration. Second, with a high figure of 18 percent (10 percent for Bush) claiming high anything seems like a stretch.
The end of the article noted that the “margin of sampling error” was 3 percentage points. This statement tended to confirm the headline.
My comment, “HOGWASH”!!!! A more realistic margin of error might be 80 or 90 percent!
Polling is very popular during election campaigns and the results of these polls are bound to effect the decisions of voters. For instance, if national polls indicated that Ron Paul was quickly gaining on the leaders selected and touted by the media, which is undoubtedly a fact, it would give his candidacy a big boost. However, polls of that variety are not published what is seen by the public are national polls that put Ron Paul way down on the list. Polls can and are regularly manipulated to bring about the results desired.
When camera time during the debates is allocated so that Ron Paul gets 10 percent while Romney, Huckabee, McCain, and Giuliani divey up 80 percent, Ron Paul is falsely deemed a second rate candidate by time allocation alone.
Ron Paul is not well known nationally. He did not appear in the most admired man poll because of a lack of name recognition. He does, however, much to the chagrin of the media, score extremely well in public debates coming in first or second in almost all of the polling. This obvious popularity has been refuted by the media and has not received the publicity it deserves.
Ron Paul is popular on the internet and wins every poll. Citizens who regularly read and get their news from the internet are our best informed citizens but unfortunately only about 30 percent of United States households are connected to the internet.
An interesting corollary can be made between Jimmy Carter’s rise to the presidency in the mid-seventies and Ron Paul’s chances in 2008. At the time of the Democratic primaries according to Wikipedia Jimmy Carter had a national name recognition of 2 percent. Estimates of Ron Paul’s current name recognition range from 11% to 22%. Jimmy Carter had an advantage that Ron Paul lacks. He had the establishment on his side. According to one source, in 1973 Carter had dinner in London with David Rockefeller and thereafter was groomed for the presidency by Zbigniew Brzezinski. He joined the Trilateral Commission and even though his approval rating in the Democratic Party was only 4 percent and the Atlantic Constitution ran a headline “Jimmy Carter Running For What?”, within six months a massive media campaign rocketed him to the nomination. Read more here.
If not vigorously countered, a controlled media in a Democracy has the power to sway elections.
Ron Paul has developed a large following in both major political parties among many citizens who are sick and tired of the lies and treason that marks the activities of most of our politicians. The great silent majority has voted for smaller government for the past several elections but what candidates say and what they do are two entirely different things. There is a sense that Ron Paul is a man of his word and that he would strive to accomplish what his campaign is promising; that result would be very refreshing.
The insurmountable problem for Ron Paul is trying to overcome the bias of the national media. The latest news indicates he will be barred from an upcoming Fox News debate and forced to seek another venue.
That any major media outlet during a democratic election would ban a political candidate that has consistently scored first or second on previous debates is a major crime.
His campaign may gain some traction from an alternate venue but it will be put at a sizeable disadvantage in the eyes of the electorate by unfairly being pronounced insignificant by a major media outlet.
It is a sad commentary that United States Christians overwhelmingly seek a worthless seat at the political table by only supporting viable candidates when they profess to worship a Savior that by willingly enduring the Cross without protest or recrimination was obedient to His Father but a loser by all worldly standards.
Christian leaders and voters need to understand some facts. First, God created everything and seeks dominion over all of His creation. God’s government centers on the family and cedes limited control to the federal government. What control He grants must be in accord with His Laws. SECULAR GOVERNMENT IS ALWAYS DISASTROUS. Second, in a democratic process, righteous government can only be sustained when ballots are cast for the most righteous candidate. Seeking to vote for a winner while ignoring a better candidate is a sure formula for deteriorating society. Jesus was obedient unto death. There was no pragmatism in Him. JESUS WAS NOT PRAGMATIC and when His followers cast their influence and their vote for popular political candidates whose standards are inferior while ignoring less popular candidates with more righteous qualifications they commit a grievous sin! Jesus is our King and in His Kingdom THE MEANS JUSTIFIES THE END.
The heresy of Dispensationalism has contributed heavily to our dire situation. Sound Reformed theology was forsaken and replaced with the disastrous idea that support for the illegitimate nation of Israel would hasten the return of the Savior. This heresy has resulted in an evil disregard for Christ’s death who by His sacrifice became the ONLY channel to the ear of the Father. It has resulted in a malignant disregard for the welfare of our own nation in favor of support for the same Pharisees Jesus vehemently condemned. When the Covenant was broken by failure to accept the death of God’s Son as propitiation for sin, the religion of Judaism became anathema and remains so. If we are ever to have revival in America, Christians must forsake this evil emotionalism. Yes, I have read the extensive Old Testament Scripture that foretells a restoration and God may decide to reinstate that promise at some later date but for now His mind has been changed, the mantle is in the hands of Christians and they need to learn to use it.
This is a subject for another essay but let me add this to the foregoing paragraph. Dispensational Christians are the source of popular support for the Satanic war in Iraq. We can always rely on Satan to confuse issues and make the wrong course seem right. Nations and individuals are to obey God’s Commandments. Waging war against nations that have not attacked us and pose no potential threat is a serious injustice. Without provocation we have murdered millions of innocent men, women, and children created in God’s image. In The Book of Proverbs (6:1, 11:15, 27:13) God warns us several times against becoming surety for our neighbors. Waging war on behalf of Israel is evil and foolish as well.
Ron Paul will lose support from many Christians and Christian leaders because he favors an end to the Iraq War. He is correct and hundreds of thousands of American Christians and their leaders are wrong.
The 501C3 status of our churches has resulted in the ability of the government to control their participation in politics. If Ron Paul is to succeed in becoming President and given the opportunity to return obedience to the Constitution and integrity to that office, he must have the support of Christians and their leaders. The media will fight his popularity, they will bring out inaccurate polls and bar him from debates, they will denigrate him with their talking heads, and attempt to make him laughable and insignificant. They will do to him the same thing they have done to our Savior.
Will Christians wake up? Probably not, they are a stiff necked lot.