I’m not sure what to think of this. World Net Daily is right leaning so it doesn’t seem like the poll would be biased in Obama’s favor, and it seems doubtful that the article would slant the results in that direction, but these results seem unlikely to me.
“We’re GOP all the way but HOLY SHIT are those guys fuckin’ crazy! Obama may be an evil socialist closet Muslim, but at least he’s not crazy!”
I’m also not sure it would be %20, but even on this MB there are some folks who are still registered Republicans who just never got around to changing their registration in the past 15-20 years, or are still hoping for a sane candidate.
I guess that at least 20% of Republicans don’t think that he’s an “evil socialist closet Muslim”. I never did believe that a large majority of them thought those things.
Although, come to think of it, 80% is a large majority. Still, I doubt that most of them think like that.
To get a gauge of comparison, you regard World Net Daily as “right leaning”. Yes. Quite.
That’s about twice the party defection rate of 2008. I seriously doubt its true (I’ve never head or the polling firm, and WND is basically a tabloid), but it would be a big deal if it were.
Not being familiar with World Net Daily, I read the comments for the article. It’s really fascinating how completely opposite their perspective is from my own and most of the posters here. I feel like I’m reading posts from a completely different country, with entirely different leadership. Very strange.
I guess it’s the Bizarro Straight Dope
Markedly less intelligent-sounding, though.
Which I take to mean they won’t vote for any likely Republican candidate. But I will predict that few if any of those will actually vote for Obama either, so it’s a small net gain for him.
But if they don’t vote at all then in a way it is a gain. That’s what I take from the situation.
First off, who the heck is Wenzell Strategies? When they say they polled “Republican voters”, do they mean they polled registered Republicans, or people who maybe voted Republican last time, or any time.
Its an opening move towards a brokered convention, laying the groundwork to reject the presumed nomination of whomsoever wins the most delegates. And draft Jeb Bush. Maybe Neil. OK, Jenna.
They’re establishing the narrative that none of the above can possibly win, so unless the Republican Party wants to start negotiating terms for surrender, they must be prepared to overturn the judgement of the base, if need be.
Examine the fingerprints on this, and you will discover strands of porcine DNA. Karl Rove. Karl Rove, who has spent months cajoling money, begging, whoring, he has raised a metric buttload of money to spend un-electing Obama and is going to give it to Romney? Christ Jesus, Newt?
If they get this in place, it buys time, maybe they can find a candidate to ride in on a white charger. Maybe Chris Christie, if he hasn’t already eaten it.
But for any of this to work, they have to start early, get people used to the idea that the guy who wins the nomination isn’t necessarily the guy who won the most votes.
Some very minimal Googling brings up the name of one Fritz Wenzel. It seems he was a reporter for the Toledo Blade up to 2005 when he started Wenzel Strategies. He also had some affiliation with Zogby for a time. I don’t know enough about Ohio politics but he had some connection to a guy named Tom Noe who was somehow involved in a scandal resulting in OH Gov. Bob Taft being indicted and basically having his political career end in ruins. Here is a link to a 2005 Salon article about Wenzel. I’m sure there’s something interesting there but I haven’t really managed to get a good grasp on all of it yet.
At first glance it seems like he (Wenzel) is a loyal party guy and is well connected to major Ohio Republicans.
Oh - one of the testimonials on the Wenzel Strategies website is from Senator Rand Paul. Apparently Wenzel was his pollster.
I think it’s safe to say they are hardly a non-partisan pollster.
aka World Nut Daily
Okay. Not so much leaning as falling over. They’re extremely right-wing.
They “lean” right much in the same way that a black hole has a gravitational pull. Yeah, sure it’s an accurate statement, but the scale is important.
To my mind more important than the number of declared Republicans who will vote for Obama is the number who will simply not vote. I ain’t clicking on a WND link, afraid of passing over the stupid event horizon, but does that poll address that number? I suspect it may actually be higher than 20%, and I mean not just a poll but actual election results. The nominating process has been hijacked by wack-a-doodles this time around, and I believe all but the smallest parts of the R base are going to be turned off by Nov. In any sane world Romney would be the least likely candidate among a field of much better, but I no longer believe there is much better in the R party. The “much better” is staying away from politics.
(Full disclosure - While a D. voter, I think the Democratic party has much the same flaws. A slightly deeper bench in terms of leadership, but you have to look for it. Reid is little better than Barney Fife. Look to Cordray and Warren for your next round of Democratic leaders.)
This one’s a real gem:
I wouldn’t put too much stock into this regardless of the source, given the timing. The Republican primary battle is at its zenith, and right now Obama is the only serious presidential candidate nobody is saying bad things about.
Once the primaries are over and (not?) Mitt starts attacking Obama the numbers will even out a bit.
Its more likey that 20% of republican voters like fucking with pollsters.
About a decade ago, I described the WorldNetDaily as “the Weekly World News of op-ed.” Can’t think of a reason to change that - anything the WND says would undoubtedly have more validity in a world dominated by aliens, Bigfoot, and the like.