Feedback Friday

"That was a bad mistake. Do you think it will [a]ffect his campaign?"

- Posted by Julie in response to our story "Schaffer pulls initial TV ad after mountain mix-up."

Dear Julie,

It really wasn't that big a mistake. It's just that Schaffer hasn't been on much of a roll pr-wise lately. But no, it should not have much influence on the outcome of the campaign as long as it's not symptomatic of an overall problem with campaign management. With Walt Klein and Dick Wadhams running things, we find it hard to believe Schaffer won't make it a close race.     

"Look I am serving my country honorably and I am currently enlisted in the Army and have served 2 tours of duty in Iraq. I thank GOD for American and what it stands for. I'm supporting Armstrong not because of his non-military career but what he stands for which is change."

- Posted by Iraq Vet in response to our story "Coffman endorsed by five former state GOP chairs."

Dear Vet,

Yes, but only 10 percent of our congressman have any military experience and only 5 percent have combat experience. At a time of war, we think it's fair to try to elect more leaders that understand how wars are fought and won. Armstrong is missing that and should have to explain how he can make up that deficit. It's not like Colorado's legislative delegation is very strong on defense issues. One person could make a difference.

 "Why is Udall so desperate to distance himself from Boulder anyway?"

-Posted by GOPundit in response to our story "Mark Udall: 'Unincorporated Boulder liberal'?"

Dear Pundit,

Udall will win or lose based on Wadhams' ability to get people to link "Boulder liberal" with Udall's name. Fairly or not, the McCain people have treated Schaffer so far like he has the plague and the Republican or conservative label won't help Schaffer much either.      

"Here are some facts: in order to get to a 1700 person sample the Crank campaign had to call at least half the registered Republican households in the district and get about a 5 percent response."

- Posted by PPD23 in response to our story "Joke's on Crank in poll."

Dear PPD,

That's pretty much our point too. That's a lot of phone calls to make if you're just doing a survey. And they might have called more than that too. A 5 percent response is about right for robo calls, but it just as likely they had a 3 percent response. The district has about 70,000 registered Republican household with phone numbers. By our math they called at 30,000 to 60,000 households. To do a survey? Not likely. And it's impossible to quantify the margin of error for an automated survey anyway. How do you know someone's 10 year old isn't picking up the phone and answering it?  Rasmussen has been able to do some good work in automated surveys. But they don't charge 5 cents per call like Gabe Joseph, Crank's "pollster" does. Just because you call a mule a horse doesn't make him one. And calling whatever Crank did a poll is equally deceptive.

Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend and we'll see you on Monday.