The West Wing

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Mark Blumenthal1 Comment on The West Wing

For those who do not watch NBC’s The West Wing, here is an amusing bit of dialogue from last night’s episode.  In the West Wing’s parallel political universe, we are in the midst of the presidential primaries.  On the eve of Super Tuesday, presidential campaign manager Josh Lyman (played by Bradley Whitford), refuses to answer questions from the press about "internal" tracking surveys.  A reporter asks, "why not?"

"’Cause we’re here to talk about issues.  It’s a presidential campaign, it’s not a statistics convention."

And that would be a bad thing? 

Seriously, for those who find the notion of a statistics/opinion poll convention appealing, let me recommend the one coming up in May sponsored by the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR).  And for those who can’t afford the travel expenses, MP will be providing full on-scene coverage. 

And yes, it’s true, I must admit a personal weakness: MP is a huge West Wing fan.   And as a former "road warrior" for Gary Hart’s 1984 campaign, one who was told of leaked exit polls showing Hart would shock the world with a stunning New Hampshire upset but was then forbidden by his boss to share the news with an office full of volunteers, last night’s episode gave me chills.  Sometimes, if you’re lucky, an election night can really feel like the fictional one shown last night.  . 

Anyway…back to regular programming . . .

[And a big hat tip to CP of the AAPOR listserv for the West Wing quote].

Mark Blumenthal

Mark Blumenthal is the principal at MysteryPollster, LLC. With decades of experience in polling using traditional and innovative online methods, he is uniquely positioned to advise survey researchers, progressive organizations and candidates and the public at-large on how to adapt to polling’s ongoing reinvention. He was previously head of election polling at SurveyMonkey, senior polling editor for The Huffington Post, co-founder of Pollster.com and a long-time campaign consultant who conducted and analyzed political polls and focus groups for Democratic party candidates.

1 thought on “The West Wing”

  1. “And as a former “road warrior” for Gary Hart’s 1984 campaign, one who was told of leaked exit polls showing Hart would shock the world with a stunning New Hampshire upset…”
    A good axe throw always pays dividends. (Goddamn superdelegates…)
    So, perhaps we can breakdown the ’08 candidates like this:
    Hillary = Mondale
    Edwards = Hart
    Bayh = Glenn
    Feingold = Jackson

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