Pushing CCRAP! (Volume II)

TheCloakOfInevitability
BoughtAndPolledVille


Well, whaddya know, it's another one of those 'Big Mo' Polls for Little Stephen and The Imperial(ist)s from Allan Gregg and the Strategic Counsel - front page, above the fold, in today's Globe and Mail:

Canadians in overwhelming numbers say Stephen Harper is the most decisive federal leader with the clearest vision of where he wants to lead the country, according to a poll that suggests the Conservatives may now have the winning conditions needed for a spring election.

The new survey also finds that voters have failed to warm up to recently elected Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion, and that his party has lost its postconvention bounce to the Tories, who are seen to have the best handle on national issues.

Were an election to be held today, 34 per cent of voters would opt for the Conservatives, up three points from last month. The Liberals are at 29 per cent, down six points from the same period, while the New Democratic Party is down one point to 14 per cent. The main beneficiary appears to be the Green Party, which has the support of 12 per cent of voters, up from eight per cent.

"These numbers are good enough that I would start my election preparedness in earnest," said Allan Gregg, chairman of The Strategic Counsel, which produced the poll for The Globe and Mail-CTV News. "I would say, looking at this, something untoward would have to happen for him not to call it."

Now, with all the swiftboating and smearing going on, not to mention the fact that George Bush's best new boyfriend is positioning himself as a 'War PrimeMini-Me'* you might conclude that a 34/29 split is actually pretty close, and certainly not a majority - especially when one factors in the absence of any hard MoE numbers in the nearly breathless bit of stenography from the Globe's Brian Laghi.

But, of course, when you're Crankin' the Whirlitzer alternative conclusions are beside the point.

Which is clearly evident from the 96 uber-steno follow-ups from the herd press so far.

And just in case you missed it back in the day, here's the plot summary of 'Pushing CCRAP, Volume I' first released into mass circulation back in Jan 2006:

National Poll Results
Date	Poll	Lib	CPC	NPD	BQ	GRN	MoE
Jan. 16	SES	30	37	18	10	4	+/-3.1
Jan. 16	Ekos	30	36	19	12	3	+/-3.7
Jan. 16	SC	27	40	16	11	6	+/-2.5

Now, first off ignore that Strategic Counsel business. As we have discussed before, proprietor Allan Gregg has a track record of sending his operatives out onto the right-sided fringe of the Pollosphere.

So, that leaves SES and Ekos.

And they both show a tightening. So much so that they are at the outer margins of the MoE with respect to the gap betweeen Our (small)Paul and (notso)Little Stephen.

19 times out of 20, of course.

See this anywhere being screamed, above the fold, in 144 type on the front pages of any Canned West dailies today?

Or even the Toronto Globe and (nolongerEmpire)Mail for that matter?

Thought not.

So if you were going to anticipate the WPM-M's next bit of harpoon-assisted jujitsu to keep the whirlitzer cranking through a few more newscycles, what do you think it would be?

Me, I figure he'll deny he has any intention of calling the election in an effort to lower expectations just before he announces that we're going to build 18 more Timmy's and a Molson's Brewery in Kandahar.

OK?

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The Mini-Me nick-name comes from orc at 'This Space For Rent' who figures that, in this case at least, the student may be stronger than the master.


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