Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Is Rubio Really Leading Crist Or Is Fox News Electioneering?

I came across this article from The Florida Times-Union by Mike Marino regarding the Florida senate race that I thought was interesting and worth sharing:
Charlie Crist isn't a favorite of Fox News and its viewers. Now, a new poll shows that dislike may be rubbing off on voters.

In a poll of 1,000 likely Florida voters conducted for the network on Sept. 11, Republican Marco Rubio was the favorite of 43 percent in the race for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Crist appointee George LeMieux. The governor, running as an independent, came in a distant second at 27 percent and Democrat Kendrick Meek was favored by 21 percent.

Fox said Crist's fall could be due to his support for "liberal positions" and support for President Barack Obama.
I find this highly suspect - a poll conducted for Fox News finds Marco Rubio the state favorite.  Fox News has been quiet on the governor's race and the Democrat is leading the Republican candidate by 8 points - we all know that they have been very vocal in pushing Rubio's candidacy and now their poll shows Rubio ahead by 16 points!
 
There are some interesting things about the questionnaire - there is a higher amount of people, when compared to the national average, who are in support of repealing health care reform (54% - 27%).  It is worth noting that most conservative pollsters put opposition of health care reform over 50 percent while the majority of other pollsters place it more realistically around 30 percent.  Surprisingly, an overwhelming majority (71%) of respondents also stated that their choice was based on national political issues, as opposed to their feelings for the candidates themselves, meaning they don't know anything about the candidates and are only choosing who they are told to vote for - if they watch Fox News or listen to Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, or the tea party, that person is Marco Rubio. 

It is interesting to note that the poll showed that only 38 percent of respondents considered Rubio to be trustworthy (40 percent found Crist to be trustworthy).

Either Fox has been very effective at electioneering or the Florida electorate is just unsure who to elect this fall - I am going with the former  One question I would have liked to see on the poll is "What news source are you most likely to get your political information from?"  Undoubtedly, the answer would have leaned towards "Fox News."

3 comments:

  1. Interesting thought. I really don't think Christ is too much different from Marco Rubio to be honest. Granted, this might be the liberal in me talking, but I think that ideologues like Rubio will be in for a rude awakening in November.

    P.S. (I'd like to trade guest posts with you, if you're up to it. What medium, would it be best to talk about this?)

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  2. I think you are partially correct about Crist. From a liberal perspective, he is the same as Rubio. He supports many of the same things the GOP does (i.e. health care repeal) but were he is different is that he was never really embraced by the party base, and he knew that going into the election (hence becoming independent).

    The Democrat is not that strong , in my opinion, and Crist has positioned himself in the middle - he wants to repeal health care, but he wants to keep what will be proven to work and will only repeal it if there is a substitute ready to take its place (a position that I can somewhat back in hopes that there are decent proposals out there), he wants to postpone offshore drilling. I think he is a better choice for Florida - for national politics and GOP positioning, Rubio is better.

    As for exchanging guest posts, I guess the best way to contact me would be through email - mumnow@gmail.com.

    I can add you as an author on this blog so you wouldn't have to wait on me (I can go days without checking my email).

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  3. Also, in regards to Crist, I like that he has pissed off the teabag crowd, and those people are so infantile that they will never reconcile with him - after all, they didn't like the man because he hugged the president!!!

    I'm sure the GOP would want him back if he were to win but I don't think he would be a sure thing for them. I know that Rubio will gladly participate in their obstructionist activities. I could vote for Meek, but I think a vote for Meek is a vote for Rubio, and I cannot let Rubio win!

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