My friend Mike Spence is exactly right: a ballot measure that addressed policy reform in the area of illegal immigration could have been of huge help to the governor’s effort. But I should clarify a point on which we may have disagreed. I wasn’t simply arguing for photo opportunities with children, but rather finding a way to reassure swing voters that Schwarzenegger’s conservative principles are laced with centrist tendencies on some issues. That may not be necessary for either Mike or myself, but it’s the difference between 44 percent and 51 percent of the vote on Election Day.

Arnold was elected because he combined a commitment on conservative principles, which appealed to many Republicans, with more moderate stances on social and environmental issues, which attracted support from independents and moderate Democrats. We all knew during the recall campaign what type of governor we’d be getting: my point is not that Schwarzenegger should abandon his core conservative beliefs on economic, public safety, and immigration policy, not in the slightest. He should not attempt to “move to the center” in order to regain… Read More

Aloha from the Big Island here in Hawaii. As I take an opportunity to surf the web, while looking at the surf, I am reading various post-mortem thoughts on yesterday’s election results. FR friend, radio host and columnist Hugh Hewitt has an outstanding analysis that is laid out in the form of a letter to the Governor. I will excerpt the beginning here, and give you the link to the whole thing on his excellent website, below.

There is no such thing as a fusion candidate, no such thing as a bipartisan campaign or a non-partisan issue, and come election night, there are just two parties, one at the GOP HQ and one at the Dem HQ. There’s a winners’ party and a losers’ party. Last night you were speaking to the losers’ party.

I… Read More

No more guns. Given the dismal election results, the best thing on TV last night was when William Shatner’s character on Boston Legal, Denny Crane, shot a rapist and murderer of 13-year-old girl in both knee caps to get out of having to serve as his court-appointed lawyer.

I’m sure that the anti-gun folks in SF, who passed a poorly written, easily challenged gun ban last night, were horrified by this depiction of guns on television. The SF voters passed Proposition H, which bans the manufacture, distribution, sale and transfer of firearms and ammunition within San Francisco. It prohibits residents from possessing guns within city limits, unless they are required for professional reasons (cops, security guards,… Read More

Last night, I attended a private event in San Francisco, a reception with Helen Thomas, the veteran UPI reporter who covered the White House for nearly 40 years. After we mixed and mingled, Thomas gave a speech and took Q&A from the audience.

I expected Thomas’ speech to be an interesting journey through the administrations of the eight presidents she covered—Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton. And while I expected Thomas’ politics to be left of center, what I was not prepared for was the vitriolic speech she gave against President Bush.

Before Thomas started her speech, she was introduced by a founding partner of the hosting firm who reminded her that the audience was of mixed political views. She clearly didn’t care.… Read More

Shakespeare may have hated lawyers, but there was not much polling goingon by the monarchy at the time. I think he might have thought otherwise if there had been pollsters then.

I have to admit I have hired pollsters and even repeated their findings. I apologize.

After seeing Bill Whalen’s piece on new poll numbers hereand last weeks here. Then reading FlashReports exclusive interview with Arnie Steinberg here as well as LA Times, PPIC, Field, Survey USA polls and the elusive CRP/Arnold Internal polling, I have concluded they should all go. Most will have been shown to be wrong by some degree today.

Also, the real focus on pollsleaves public policy behind and focuses discussion onthe numbers . Our ideas are right regardless of the polling. But, if all we talk… Read More

I’ll leave the pollsters alone in this blog (as long as we are allowedopen season on them in the not-too-distant future).

But, speaking of Prop 73 (see Matt Cunningham’s prior post), I heard a pastor talk to his congregation about it on Sunday. Although he did not expressly advocate for it, you can’t be too careful these days, so I won’t mention the church (I hope no jack-booted IRS thugs show up at my doorstep asking questions after this).

It was the way this pastor said it, and I paraphrase:

"Whether you think Arnold Schwarzenegger or Warren Beatty is the celebrity that best knows the issues, that’s up to you," he said in jest. But, when it comes to Proposition 73, the school won’t even give a band-aid to my daughter without calling me….so I can’t even imagine when it comes to a medical procedure. "I’m not telling you how to vote or anything. But if you want to know more about the issue, you can go to our church website, and we have a link to YES ON 73, and you can read more about it."

You gotta… Read More

Don’t get me wrong I’m still ticked at pollsters. One other political story caught my eye.

However,one other political item caught my attention. Liberal Democrats always try to limit our opportunities, while Republicans are the party of Hope and Opportunity.

Liberals just don’t know how to reach Conservatives.When I read an account of the Breasts not Bombs" protest in Sacramento yesterday. Read it here.

I just don’t get why we have to limit ourselves so? Why not both?… Read More

My good friend and fellow FR contributor Mike Spence has suggested each of us in the arena of public opinion should find ourselves in the fiery depths of whatever afterlife awaits evil researchers.

While I may take issue with the methodology used by many of the pollsters that have released results this cycle and I will talk more about this in an election analysis piece in the near future, the bottom line is, we are researchers. We just call it like we see it. If you want to blame someone, how about the media for blindly publishing our work product.

NOTE: I mean no disrespect to the various news outlets that publish and broadcast my results after careful consideration. … Read More