That Poll Spammer is Ruining it for Everyone

Earlier this week, there was a GOP debate on CNBC, like every other one that's been held, there was a post-debate online poll. Who won? The same person who always wins, Ron Paul. Going away. The numbers were skewed so much in Dr. Paul's favor that CNBC pulled the poll. In its place they put this.

In response, Bob Murphy (author of the book "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism" a highly recommended read) wrote back:

By all means, let’s explore this "show of hands" analogy. What Wastler is complaining about is that, in a giant conference room of 300 million people, a higher percentage of Ron Paul supporters raised their hands than did the supporters of the other candidates. So that when Wastler counted up the hands in the air, he got "phony" results. Well whose fault is that? Sure, if a Ron Paul fan raised both hands (the equivalent of hacking the CNBC poll and registering more than one vote per person), that would be cheating. But Ron Paul supporters aren’t to blame if the other candidates are so blah that their own proponents don’t bother voting for them.

Which is true, even the highly touted Fred Thompson, who made his debate debut, was less than impressive.