A Polling Pandemic?
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on August 4th, 2009 4:37 am by HL
A Polling Pandemic?
Walter Shapiro writes about how “the first flicker of Obama’s vulnerabilities in the national polls invited an over-reaction from Pollyanna to piranha.”
“A strong case can be made that these pile-on polls by themselves cause growing unease. Since the 1930s, polls have been part of the national political debate eagerly parsed by presidents and pundits alike. But never has their influence loomed larger. The rabid fascination with the 2008 election turned America into a nation of polling junkies with everyone from high-school students to elderly shut-ins loudly opining about sampling techniques and margins of error.”
White House Counsel Could Be Pushed Out
“Obama administration officials are holding discussions that could result in White House counsel Gregory Craig leaving his post, following a rocky tenure,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Mr. Craig, the top lawyer at the White House and a close aide to President Barack Obama, has helped lead the administration’s efforts on several national-security issues that once enjoyed popularity but have since become become political liabilities for Mr. Obama.”
“These include the closure of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the release of Bush administration-era national-security documents, and efforts to find legal ways to indefinitely hold some detainees who can’t be put on trial.”
