In Presidential elections, polls can sway the perception of strength for one candidate over another at any given time.
However, for President Obama’s campaign strategist David Axelrod, suing and intimidation seemed more prudent.In any poll, there is always a margin of error and no two polls are the same. Statistically relevant polling is suppose to be done over a wide range of likely voters with enough people to glean some kind of confidence. These polls are suppose to be independent, but many polls tend to have some kind of bias. And when theses polls don’t read the way you want, you will typically just write it off and find another poll that bodes better for you.
The fact that David Axelrod would even consider these childish actions makes me think that the Obama administration is worried about their reelection prospects. If they weren’t, they would be more confident in the fact that they believed they could win and brush these kinds of polls aside.
According to Dick Morris.com:
The Obama Administration’s Justice Department announced, on August 22nd, that it was joining a lawsuit by a former Gallup employee and whistleblower against the Gallup Corporation for allegedly overcharging the government on polling work.
The announcement comes on the heels of a confrontation between Gallup staffers and Obama strategist David Axelrod in which he accused the company of using out of date sampling methods which, he said, generated polling data negative to the president.
The whistleblower’s lawsuit has been kicking around since 2009, but the Justice Department joined the suit only after the run-in between Axelrod and Gallup in April of this year.
In a scene right out of a typical authoritarian regime, Fox News reports that “employees at the venerable Gallup polling firm suggested they felt threatened by Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod when he questioned the methodology of a mid-April poll showing Mitt Romney leading the president – according to internal emails published Thursday.”
That poll that sent Axelrod ballistic showed Romney leading Obama 48-43 percent.
The Daily Caller published e mails that started when Axelrod sent a tweet to Gallup saying the tracking poll was “saddled with some methodological problems” and directing followers to a National Journal story in which a professor suggested outdated sampling.
According to the email chain titled “Axelrod vs. Gallup,” the White House in addition asked that a Gallup staffer “come over and explain our methodology,” which was apparently perceived as a subtle threat.
Fox News reported that “a Gallup official said in an email he thought Axelrod’s pressure ‘sounds a little like a Godfather situation.’”
Gallup refused to change its methodology to suit the White House.
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