The other day I blogged on Republicans’ misplaced enthusiasm in a recent Rasmussen Poll, by suggesting that in the wake of an unprecedented post-election PR campaign, the numbers really weren’t all that bad for Governor Gregoire and the state Democrats. (“Crow all you want, eat all you crow.”)
I had failed to find an earlier poll to use as reference point, but apparently I didn’t try hard enough. A helpful reader has pointed me towards a five-week-old poll, and the trends should definitely give Rossi’s political strategists some pause.
The poll was conducted January 24-26 by Republican pollsters Strategic Vision. Compare its results to those of Rasmussen’s February 22 poll, and it clearly looks like any advantages Dino Rossi may have gained from his coordinated propaganda campaign are fading fast.
Favorable Ratings Jan. 24-26 Feb. 22 Rossi 50% 55% Gregoire 38% 50%
Who really won the election? Jan. 24-26 Feb. 22 Rossi 53% 44% Gregoire 37% 42% Undecided 10% 15%
Of course, these polls have a substantial margin of error, and are for the most part, complete and utter bullshit. But if the Rs were hoping to see some sort of permanent lift from trashing the electoral process, they’re not seeing it here.
An even less scientific, but more dramatic, indicator of the public’s flagging interest in this interminable election contest, is the substantial drop in traffic to right-wing blog (un)Sound Politics. Many of the unsubstantiated allegations echoed by the Rossi camp, originally slithered out of (u)SP’s primordial soup of rumor and innuendo. While their site statistics remain impressive, their average daily visits are off by 60% from the post-election high. (By comparison, HA continues to trend upwards.)
All this suggests to me that interest in the election dispute continues to fade, along with the outrage. We all know Rossi is losing the battle in the courts… now it appears he may be losing the battle in the court of public opinion as well.