Troopergate, the Reverse Bradley Effect

Today, Thailand's Supreme Court handed down a ruling that their former Prime Minister was guilty of corruption while in office, and plans to try and extradite him from Britain were initiated. Now that the Alaskan legislative committee has found Sarah Palin guilty of ethics violation, and another committee's investigation has begun, I wonder where the Palin family will flee to? Perhaps they will go to "real America," and can we extradite her from there?

The polls all have Barack Obama ahead of John McCain, some by as much as 10 points. Fareed Zakaria, in his book The Future of Freedom, wonders at our obsession with polls. "When historians write about these times they will surely be struck by our constant, never-ending search for the pulse of the people... Pollsters have become our modern soothsayers, interpreting public opinion surveys with the gravity with which their predecessors read chicken entrails." Some news stations and web sites have constant up-to-the-minute updates of the various polls, and go on and on about their interpretations of what we think. Sometimes I wonder if I have a mind of my own...

And in my own mind I've gleaned from all of my readings and news watching the dirty little secret that even Laura Bush supports Barack Obama. Wanna bet on it?

In Kathleen Parker's column , she writes not only about the Bradley effect, where white folks lie to a pollster about their support for a black candidate, but also the Reverse Bradley effect, or whites who would never admit to voting for a black man, but do. She also tells about the many calls and e-mails she's received from conservatives who have also come to the conclusion that they cannot support they way John McCain has run his campaign and made decisions.

She ends her piece by saying "But an Obama victory won't give him a mandate. Many of the Reverse-Bradley ballots won't have been votes cast for Obama, but against a campaign turned ugly. They also will have been delivered with solemn prayers that Obama will govern as the centrist, pragmatic leader he is capable of being."