Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Liberals live Second Life through latest poll.

Liberal bloggers (here, here and here) are declaring this poll the greatest moment in Liberaldom since Paul Martin's Juggernaut, bloodied with the carcasses of Jean Chretien and Sheila Copps, began careening through its election opponents -- before slamming prematurely into the reality that people didn’t want to vote Liberal anymore.

Among the nuggets of reality that the bloggers are glossing over at this moment:
a) Liberal support is virtually frozen from this time last year;
b) the poll only puts them within the margin of error of Harper;
c) at 32 percent, Liberals are only 2 points higher than the wholloping Canadians gave them in January 2006, and at the same level that the Joe Clark Tories were defeated with in 1980;
d) the poll didn't ask about your party's leader who is still about as popular as Chinese-made Polly Pocket dolls this season.

The other reality: Liberals are slapping each other on the back over this video game victory, while in reality, Harper remains in power.

Where was all this unseemly Liberal bloodlust and jubulation when New Democrats were begging Liberals to help defeat Harper this fall? Liberals had FOUR chances to defeat Harper, but just like with Kyoto, they just didn't get it done.

12 comments:

Oxford County Liberals said...

Um... I don't know where you got from my blogpost that it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. All I said was that actions had consequences, and the Cons. were suffering some consequences as a result of their actions.

You, on the other hand, remind me of what this writer is talking about when talking about Jack Layton and the stagnant (not to mention hypocritical) NDP.

Steve V said...

" New Democrats were begging Liberals to help defeat Harper this fall? Liberals had FOUR chances to defeat Harper"

I didn't agree with the strategy, but since it's all about defeating Harper, you should be applauding any poll that shows the Conservatives tanking. The fact you pick this moment to go partisan reveals a lot, and defeating Harper isn't the priority you claim. Two cents.

Blogging Horse said...

Defeating Harper IS a priority. Electing Liberals who don't have the guts to fight him isn't.

This past fall has shown that the NDP is the ONLY party that gets that.

Steve V said...

"This past fall has shown that the NDP is the ONLY party that gets that."

I agree that the Liberals dropped the ball, in fact it pissed me off. However, if the above is true, then why are the NDP down to 15% in the polls?

northwestern_lad said...

Blogging... the NDP is the only party that's getting it, that's right, but while the NDP is getting it on one hand, they're getting punished for the multiple apologies and bad press that came over the past two weeks. Frankly, all the good that the NDP is doing is getting blunted by a few stupid, ham-fisted acts, and that's extremely frustrating

Blogging Horse said...

to scott: on second glance, i note that your blog post was not as jubulant as the others. it is corrected.

to steve v and nw_l: patience, dear friends.

northwestern_lad said...

Blogging... my patience is in short supply at the moment

Jeff said...

..declaring this poll the greatest moment in Liberaldom since Paul Martin's Juggernaut...


I'll take that as sarcasm, since what I actually said was "Not that we should get too excited...". No need to apologize for the mischaracterization though, I know the NDP has been doing quite enough of that lately.

Blogging Horse said...

Ha. Good one BCer.

Speaking of Paul Martin, someone's still waiting for him to say "sorry".

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=552112fc-e85f-4d0e-b6c8-978372921775

900ft Jesus said...

I hardly declared it "the greatest moment in Liberaldom" at all. Three dancing Snoopies and no commentary? A picture really is worth a thousand words to some, I guess, but you got the words wrong. There's a difference between indulging in a little payful joy and jumping to conclusions that the poll means the Libs are a shoe-in.

Nor have I seen any of the others you linked to passing this poll off as such. Decima drew the conclusions, and numbers can turn at anytime, for a number of reasons.

Personally, I think Pat Martin had a good idea in suggesting the Left should make an informal alliance. Temporary, informal - to get Harper the hell out before he damages our country to where it will take decades to recover. But no, NDP and Libs have to jab at each other, at the expense of Canadians, and the benefit of the CONs. It,s more important to hate Liberals than to get rid of a "Republican" like Harper.

Blogging Horse said...

Only you really know what the "dancing Snoopies" were about.

No one here "hates" the Liberals. They just aren't the answer to Stephen Harper.

Liberals don't want cooperation. They don't even want to unthrone Harper. What they want is NDP votes.

They've run every election saying "we share your values" to get votes but then do nothing about climate change and put corporate tax cuts ahead of child care. Enough.

Nothing personal. It's just time for real leadership against Harper.

Malcolm+ said...

The difference between the Liberatives and the Conserverals is not that the one "share my values" and the other don't.

Neither of them share my progressive values.

The difference between the two is that one tells me the truth - "we are a right wing party" - while the other lies.

A party that "shared my values" would have done something about childcare, would have done something about global warming, would have done something about the growing prosperity gap.

But the pretendy progressive Liberals did none of these things.

The Conservative child care plan, as appalling as it is, is better than the two-thirds of four-fifths of warmed over nothing we got from the Liberals.

The Conservative Environmental policy, as appalling as it is, is better than the hot air and empty rhetoric that we got from the Liberals.

And while the Conservatives have done nothing to address the prosperity gap, the Liberals propose to make it worse with massive tax cuts to the wealthy.

Pat Martin was right. The left should get its act together.

And the way to do that is for the would be progressives in the Liberal Party to wake up, realize that they're being used, and then to come home.