RappVoice poll yields stunning result, but what does it mean?
The Rappahannnock Voice called out last week for votes from county residents in the showdown between Democrat James Webb and Republican Sen. George Allen, but it appears that county Republicans weren’t listening.
Webb easily outpolled the incumbent Virginia senator by a margin of 22 votes to 8, in an unscientific “poll” that RappVoice labeled as “just for fun.” As we cautioned before the vote, the outcome is not a valid random sample of Rappahannock County voters and the results have no significant meaning. The internet survey was announced on Rappnet, the county’s e-mail bulletin board, on October 16, so only the Rappnet community of local voters even knew the polling was underway.
RappVoice editor James P. Gannon, who covered national politics and presidential campaigns during his long career as a newspaper reporter, columnist and editor, gave his penetrating analysis of the results after the exhaustive job of tallying all 30 votes, which poured in by e-mail from presumably real people. “The stunning outcome of this balloting, has multiple layers of interpretation which nearly defy analysis,” Gannon said gravely, “but with intense concentration I have been able to discern at least 10 possible conclusions that can be drawn from the data.” His Top Ten meanings of Webb’s huge victory, and their approximate probability of being valid, are as follows:
1. This poll was labeled as “just for fun,” and in the year 2006, Republicans don’t think political polls are fun anymore. (75% chance of validity).
2. There are far more liberal Democrats subscribed to Rappnet than there are Republicans. Most of the Republicans quit Rappnet when they got tired of incessant Bush-bashing by chronic whiners. (65%)
3. Ben “Cooter” Jones signed up about 500 new subscribers to Rappnet at that big Webb rally he held at his Harris Hollow home and thus tilted the playing field in the Democrat’s favor. (40%)
4. Republicans are so sure that George Allen cannot be beaten that they didn’t bother to vote. (55%).
5. Any sample of only 30 self-selected people can produce any sort of outcome. (100%).
6. The instructions for the poll required those participating to disclose their real names in voting, and Republicans value their privacy more than Democrats do. (50%)
7. Democrat Webb actually is leading by a nearly three-to-one margin (2%).
8. The Allen campaign instructed its supporters not to vote, fearing another trap was being set by Webb’s killer-instinct campaign managers, who were clever enough to hire a videocam spy to goad Allen into his now-infamous “macaca moment.” (40%)
9. Only 30 people in the county plan to vote in the Senate election; the rest are totally disgusted with the negative tone of the Allen-Webb campaign. (33%).
10. The Republicans thought “rappvoice” might be some kind of an ethnic slur in a foreign language, and didn’t want to get anywhere near this thing. (Look it up in an English-Swahili dictionary and see for yourself.)
Comments
Comment from walterlongyear
Time: October 23, 2006, 2:19 am
This sounds like any other poll result showing Democrats winning. And it has just as much meaning.
The only poll that counts is the general election resurns.
Comment from nolp
Time: October 23, 2006, 6:14 pm
Good job; love the poll; incitefull comments(!); would that the results become true.
And thanks for the laugh - if we forget that, we really are in peril.
Nol Putnam
Comment from wonka13
Time: October 25, 2006, 4:20 am
Thanks RappVoice for the poll….unfortunately it was flawed by its timing during the peak of the blue ridge peak of fall foliage colors. Republicans were out appreciating the exceptional colors funded by the GOP senatorial committee to assure an Allen victory. We all know that Webb will raise the fees at National Parks and make a fall visit to Skyline Drive beyond the reach of baby boomers and soccer moms!
Bill Earle
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