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O’Reilly Factor Poll: “Compassionate” Democrats Love Family Guy, Hate Palin

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» 26 comments

Americans can’t separate Sarah Palin‘s person from her politics– that is the conclusion The O’Reilly Factor came to on Friday after having Fox News’ resident pollster Dr. Frank Luntz survey Philadelphia voters on their reactions to the Trig Palin-inspired Family Guy episode that sent his mother into yet another fit of Facebook rage. The polling showed that “Republicans” were much more repulsed by the program and more likely to support Palin’s plea to keep her son out of the political debate. “Democrats have a reputation of being more compassionate,” Luntz noted, “yet the Democrats didn’t find that offensive.”

Luntz specifies at the beginning of the segment that the people used in the experiment are neither Democrats nor Republicans, but people chosen because they voted for Barack Obama or John McCain. Using the parameters Luntz himself sets, it is possible that some of those Obama voters specifically voted against Palin despite being Republicans, so the conclusion that Democrats are not as compassionate as they seem because eleven Obama voters from Philadelphia laughed at Family Guy seems like a bit of a stretch. Bill O’Reilly‘s point– that people find it difficult to separate Palin’s person and family life from her politics– is a more likely theory, especially considering how much of the Palin platform centers around family values and personal issues that are appealing to social conservatives.

What O’Reilly fails to point out is that this knife cuts both ways, and outrage from Palin voters at the segment is probably more of a reaction to seeing Palin offended than it is to watching a program that ridicules special needs babies. In fact, Luntz points out that the Palin voter line “tanks” right after the character with Down Syndrome says her mother is the former governor of Alaska, moreso than when the characters are ridiculing the Down Syndrome girl’s appearance without her having a political identity.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Boyer/602168764 John Boyer

    And there’s the fact that the joke was just not funny.

  • The Real Royal King

    Frank Luntz! Come of it! He is a total hack! His methodology is fatally flawed. He defines the answer he desires in advance, then asks the questions in such a way that he invariably achieves the desired answer. No one views Luntz as credible. I doubt even the FOX people take him seriously.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Aaron-Rosenberg/100416 Aaron Rosenberg

    Rediculous. “Obama voters like Family Guy more than McCain voters.” Great job Luntz. You’ll get tenure for this. Maybe for your follow-up, you can demonstrate how McCain voters prefer Rascal mobility scooters, reading glasses and high-pants.

  • The Real Royal King

    Good laugh, AR!

  • Olby Sucks

    This is no surprise as the Palin haters are just riddled with hate, period. Excellent info as usual with Frank Luntz.

  • Olby Sucks

    rittled, appologies to the faux royal king

  • Olby Sucks

    apologies, k, that’s it!

  • writer

    Sort of like with Bill Maher. The left has limitless compassion for others on the left. For everyone else, not so much.

  • homie

    Perhaps it’s time Palin reconsidered using her faimly as a cheap political prop.
    As for Frank Luntz, almost no one could be less credible, not even O’Reilly.

  • DEO

    Yes, Trig WILL face many challenges, sort of like the actress, Ms. Friedman, HAS.
    Sarah truly IS the CARTOON.

  • The Real Royal King

    Do you remember the Applause-o-Meter on “Queen for the Day”? Luntz is the biggest fraud since that show.

  • DEO

    …and what a sycophantic blowjob LUNTZ IS!

  • writer

    Throughout history, politicians have appeared in public with their families. When Palin does it, they’re props. Tried looking up the definition of a propped vs. an unpropped family member, but no luck so far.

  • roxsteady

    We don’t like duplicitous intellectual lightweights who write on their hands because they can’t remember the only thing their party is for. Nor do we like people who give permission for fat, sweaty junkies to use the word retard on the radio yet, go off the deep end when a lefty says it about other lefties in a private conversation. We call that hypocrisy. By the way, if I hear one more person say she needs to study up or go to college I’m going to scream. Shouldn’t you do that before being picked as a vp candidate and not after? She’s already been to 5 colleges and is still stuck on stupid.

  • ImNotBlue

    The Real Royal King says:
    March 1, 2010 at 11:27 am

    Do you have anything to back this up… at all? Or just more “throwing stuff at the wall, hope nobody notices?”

    homie says:
    March 1, 2010 at 1:12 pm

    Perhaps it’s time Palin reconsidered using her faimly as a cheap political prop.

    Remember… if Palin is seen with her family, she’s using them as a prop… But, if she’s not with her family, she’s a bad mother. We heard both of those complaints in the campaign… and sure it’s yet another double standard, but that too shouldn’t be a surprise.

    roxsteady says:
    March 1, 2010 at 1:50 pm

    We call that hypocrisy.

    Yes… you do. Of course, if the tables were reversed… you’d say something different. That too, is hypocrisy, is it not?
    _____

    Wow… look at all those, “Luntz = bad” comments. Yet, nobody really can give an example of why. Man-o-man… so much talking for people who apparently know so little.

  • The Real Royal King

    Remember… if Palin is seen with her family, she’s using them as a prop… But, if she’s not with her family, she’s a bad mother. We heard both of those complaints in the campaign… and sure it’s yet another double standard, but that too shouldn’t be a surprise.

    You’re being dishonest about that. No one complained, least of all her family, that the Drop Out Governor wasn’t with her family, but that her family was with the Drop Out Governor. She has children badly in need of discipline, regularity and attendance at school. They are a litter given to poor academic performance and misbehavior of a most serious sort. They needed to be in school. Where the Drop Out Governor was, Crackertown, Hooterville, Pluto or Xenu mattered not to anyone.

  • DEO

    Throughout history, politicians have appeared in public with their families. When Palin does it, they’re props
    _____________
    NOT with INFANTS, special needs INFANTS. Not all hours of the day and night, I saw her lug him around on her book tour in the SNOW! She gets up on the sage at 10 at night, in the snow and hands the kid over to a roady, LIKE A LOAF OF BREAD!.
    That’s a PROP.

  • ImNotBlue

    The Real Royal King says:
    March 1, 2010 at 4:03 pm

    You’re being dishonest about that. No one complained, least of all her family, that the Drop Out Governor wasn’t with her family, but that her family was with the Drop Out Governor.

    Wait… who are you talking about? I always get so confused… here I thought this was an adult space, but apparently, you’re just a child who likes to include goofy name calling as part of his/her “civilized” debate. GROW UP!

    Oh, and this shouldn’t surprise anyone either… you’re wrong.

    If your statement that she wasn’t criticized for being a mother, and running for VP… a job that would take her away from her family… THIS article (from Reuters) wouldn’t have been written.

    Oh, and for the record… when I ask for “evidence” or “support” for your statements, this is the kind of stuff I expect. I suppose that’s the difference between you and me… I can back up what I say… you just make it up as you go along.

    They are a litter given to poor academic performance and misbehavior of a most serious sort.

    Evidence? Or is this just ANOTHER example of you making stuff up.

  • ImNotBlue

    DEO says:
    March 1, 2010 at 4:20 pm

    So an infant, who (as we all know) doesn’t sleep during the same hours we all sleep… is a prop because she wants to keep him close.

    Again, I have no doubt that if she left him at home with his father, or a babysitter… you’d complain about that too (as we’ve already seen people do).

    Why you need to go through all this trouble, I don’t understand. Just like with FNC, Republicans, and half of America… just say what you really mean: “I don’t like Palin because she represents a different political ideology than myself. I’m willing to distort, fabricate, spin, and lie if it means hurting her, simply because we disagree.” Save yourself the trouble of having to write a really hypocritical tale about her children, and just cut to the chase!

  • The Real Royal King

    If your statement that she wasn’t criticized for being a mother, and running for VP… a job that would take her away from her family… THIS article (from Reuters) wouldn’t have been written.

    — See, this is actually the type of malicious distortion in which you repeatedly engage. The point was not that she was running for VP, but that she yanked her children out of school and moved them about from hotel to hotel, dragging them onto stages in the middle of the night. What kind of Mother does this. If the kids stayed home, in Dad’s or grandparent’s care, there would have been no complaint, would there?

    Oh, and for the record… when I ask for “evidence” or “support” for your statements, this is the kind of stuff I expect. I suppose that’s the difference between you and me… I can back up what I say… you just make it up as you go along.

    — This is not the Klub. You haven’t a right to demand anything here. And, I’ve yet to see you back up anything. You have the typical (White) Tea Partier notion than if you are obnoxious enough and scream loudly enough, you win. Maybe in the Klub, but not here and not in the Amerika I know.
    They are a litter given to poor academic performance and misbehavior of a most serious sort.

    Evidence? Or is this just ANOTHER example of you making stuff up.

    — Geez, man. You say those children being drug out night, after night, traveling from place-to-place during the day, during the school year. And, you know that Stadium enlisted a step ahead of a conviction for malicious mischief and vandalism of public property. (Good for him, by the way. Once he got himself out of that house, he got control of himself). You know that Kristol became a truant, got knocked up, dropped out of school and still miraculously graduated. You know that Pine can’t be trusted in public. You know that Piper had a couple of hissy fits in public and even flipped off another little kid. Don’t give me your tired old krap. I don’t prize ignorance and contentiousness as much as you do. I suspect most others here, with the exception of the bored and listless Klub members don’t either.

  • The Real Royal King

    NOT with INFANTS, special needs INFANTS. Not all hours of the day and night, I saw her lug him around on her book tour in the SNOW! She gets up on the sage at 10 at night, in the snow and hands the kid over to a roady, LIKE A LOAF OF BREAD!.
    That’s a PROP.

    — Amen, brother!

  • writer

    ‘K’eith Olbermann. ‘K’atie ‘K’ouric. Barac’K’ Obama. Demo’K'rats. ‘K’ommunism. Daily ‘K’os. Health ‘K’are. Politically ‘K’orrect. ‘K’ard ‘K’arrying liberal. ‘K’ris Matthews. Rea’K'tionary. Jesse Ja’K”K’son. Rainbow ‘K’oalition. Chi’K'ago politics. Real Royal ‘K’ing. A’K'orn. San Francis’K'o. John ‘K’erry. Ted ‘K’ennedy. ‘K’arl Marx. Fidel ‘K’astro.

  • PureFreedom

    Trig is a baby .
    TRRK says she shouldn’t be lugging him around everywhere. A baby needs to be with there mother at all times at that age.Feeding , love, care….. Of course he is going to be with her at all times in every photo. Gee I wonder about the brains of you people.

    Facts always get in the way of the left. Pure emotion response is typical!
    If you are a strong woman that believes in God and pro life, they will hate everything about you. All other achievements are lost to them.

  • ImNotBlue

    The Real Royal King says:
    March 1, 2010 at 4:37 pm

    See, this is actually the type of malicious distortion in which you repeatedly engage. The point was not that she was running for VP, but that she yanked her children out of school and moved them about from hotel to hotel, dragging them onto stages in the middle of the night.

    Ah, so you didn’t read the article. Why don’t I post some quotes from it:

    News that Palin, a conservative Christian, is running for the country’s No. 2 office while parenting both an infant son with Down Syndrome and a 17-year-old pregnant daughter has sparked both condemnation and commendation.

    Should a 44-year-old mother of five, including a newborn with special needs and a pregnant teenager, take on a job that will keep her away from her home for much of the next two months to eight years?

    So no… that wasn’t the criticism. The criticism while she was running was that she was going to spend too much time away from her family. You’re attempting to re-write history… and it’s not working. Please try again.

    This is not the Klub. You haven’t a right to demand anything here. And, I’ve yet to see you back up anything. You have the typical (White) Tea Partier notion than if you are obnoxious enough and scream loudly enough, you win. Maybe in the Klub, but not here and not in the Amerika I know.

    Once again, I fixed the “White” reference for you.

    Oh, and I DO have a right to demand anything I want! You don’t have to provide it… but I have the right to demand it!

    Furthermore, wow! Look at all the defense for why you can’t support your statements with evidence. You seem to be getting pretty angry at the notion that someone wants you to do something other than, “take your word for it.” And the fact that you associate J$’s place as a place where they DO back up there information, and that’s somehow bad, is pretty funny.

    I’m not screaming anything… just providing links to back up my statements. I know you won’t look at them… but that doesn’t actually mean I’m not posting them. There’s a difference. You should give it a try sometime.

    Evidence? Or is this just ANOTHER example of you making stuff up.

    I’m having trouble finding the links you provided for those statements. I guess you don’t have any. Surprise surprise… you’re just making stuff up again. Is this what journalism is to you? Just saying things, without support… and hoping nobody calls you on it?

    Too bad. I’ve call you on it. You’re a proven liar, and you don’t know what you’re talking about. Back up your statements, or don’t bother making them.

  • writer

    (White) Royal ‘K’ing, this would be so much simpler if you simply had the stones to say “I hate anyone who disagrees with me, so I hate Sarah Palin.” This clutching at straws routine to find fault if she so much as sets foot outside her house is wearing thin.

  • News Hounds Ellen

    Luntz really pulled a fast one here with his sample. You correctly noted that it was not clear that all the “Democrats” really were. But even if they were, Luntz put together a false sample that he also falsely described as evenly split. On Hannity the night before, Luntz used the same focus group (he says so in this O’Reilly segment) that he said included 13 McCain voters and 11 Obama voters.
    http://www.newshounds.us/2010/02/27/frank_luntz_bogus_focus_group_make_up.php

    But even if the group were split evenly, that would not be representative of the American voters which voted for Obama by 53% to McCain’s 46%.
    http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/

    Shame on Luntz for this kind of shenanigan and shame on Fox News for letting him do it.

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