As someone who has managed both corporate sales and political campaigns, I can tell you that there is very little difference between them. The ultimate goal of both is moving money from your pocket to someone else’s. I can show you how to position your high-profit product, or candidate, to maximize their exposure and ultimately, increase your profits. I can also tell you several buzz words to include in pitching those products to be sure that your customer is happy to buy the higher profit item, even if they don’t gain anything from their choice.
Auto manufacturers figured this out a long time ago and offer several configurations of basically the same vehicle with a wide variation of price (and profit) so successfully that consumers become dedicated to their preferences in almost cult-like behavior. This, not efficiency of production, is responsible for the demise of many great products whose management simply never figured out the emotional part of purchasing.
People who consider themselves savvy shoppers go to various consumer guides to see what others like or have good experience with, and choosing politicians is nothing more than another form of shopping. Polls serve political campaigns the same way consumer guides serve retailers, and the more one can control opinion the more successful they will be at either. This is why the line between corporate media and political parties has been so badly blurred in recent decades. Control the message and you control the people.
Polls and public opinion are so malleable that one can manipulate almost any desired result from them. If anyone thinks that there are independent polling companies they just don’t understand politics. The polling company might not have any obvious corporate connection to a party, but they ultimately get paid by the supporters of the parties, and those supporters all have a financial interest in their choice. Biden’s first stop after announcing his intention to run for the Presidency was Comcast to ask for financial support. Comcast owns MSNBC, so any poll the network sponsors or publishes should be suspect to anyone who has a minimum of cognitive ability.
The fact that polls began including Biden at least a month before his announcing, but some still exclude well-known politicians such as Tulsi, should be red flags for voters. Biden, I believe, didn’t really want to run unless he has become addicted to abuse. However, his name recognition and association with Obama made him the only politician who could split the yuuuuuge gap between Bernie and the next contender which early polls did accomplish.
However, especially in light of revelations of a high level of creepy behavior from Biden, giving him the lead immediately after his announcement is simply not believable. Just a cursory examination of the methodology of the polls shows extreme manipulation in his favor, so my instincts proved valid. The fix is in, and only time will tell how committed the Democrat party is to preventing a progressive, especially Bernie, from having a real shot. The media found it worth investing over a billion dollars to elevate Trump in ‘16 as covert aid to Hillary (how’s that workin?) and their motivations have changed little since.
Signaling that one is open to voting for a weak second choice before the race even begins is admitting failure and a horrible strategy given that it is common knowledge that the DNC would prefer any Democrat (or Republican evidently) to Bernie. Just don’t. Bernie is the “good stuff” for voters and should be positioned in the light of front windows just to the right of the entrance, not at the back of the store where the DNC wants to put him.
