Way back in June, Republican blogger and former Bush/Cheney Webmaster Patrick Ruffini
made fun of the Daily Kos presidential straw poll. He used the fact that we picked Wes Clark over Hillary Clinton as just more evidence that we were just wasting our energy here. Later, when Ruffini conducted
his own straw poll, he scoffed that his would be relevant, in contrast to ours.
Now, along comes Gallup's 2008 GOP primary poll, which Ruffini helfully puts alongside his own results. According to Gallup, Rudy Giuliani is polling in first, ahead of John McCain. According to Ruffini's poll of right-wing bloggers, George Allen is ahead of Giuliani with McCain polling near the bottom of the pack. Nowhere, however, does he mention this discrepency, except to point out that "George Allen is in the sleeper role, with plenty of upside potential".
More on the flip
So, according to Ruffini, when 26% of Daily Kos picks Wes Clark (who got 2% in a Fox News poll) we are "deeply out of touch", but when 37.6% of Patrick Ruffini's blogger friends pick George Allen (who got 3% in the most recent Gallup poll) Allen is the "sleeper candidate". I guess that crucial 1% makes all the difference.
In June, Ruffini also babbled on about how support for Rudy Giuliani was the same in the conservative blogosphere as it was in various polls. Well, that may be the case, but what about John McCain? Gallup says 24%, Friends of Ruffini says 9%. Not too good there. How about our own Michigan Utah Massachusetts Wunderkind Mitt Romney? Gallup says 4%, Friends of Ruffini says 14.9%. Closer, but no cigar.
The fact of the matter is this: anybody on either side who is paying attention to the 2008 elections in 2005 is out of touch with America. What percent of people are actually interested in following the 2008 race now? Compare that with the number of people who want to know what Brittney Spears is going to name her baby.