The Online 100
As a service to my readers, I thought I'd take a second to highlight a project called the 'Online 100' that was launched this week by PoliticsHome.com. Here's their description of what it is:
Seriously, though, it's an interesting idea. The goal is to gauge opinion among political junkies, among the people who are following the election the closest, and to see how that opinion differs among various groups (left vs. right, mainstream media vs. bloggers, etc.). And the questions that are being asked are not ideological in nature, but rather predictive or strategic, so opinions aren't likely to breakdown along obvious partisan lines. For example, in the first published poll, we were asked what Obama's greatest strategic error was in the campaign so far. A majority of respondents said that his biggest error was the way his campaign responded to Sarah Palin's selection as running mate. That surprised me. I thought more people would have pointed to his choice not to select Hillary Clinton as his running mate (I don't agree with that assessment, but I still thought it would be the most common answer).
Today the panel was asked to predict who would win the election. The official results should be published tomorrow morning, and I think they're going to be interesting.
It's probably also worth pointing out that PoliticsHome itself is a fantastic political website. I wasn't familiar with it until I was asked to participate in this project, but I now spend most of my day (at least when I'm not doing real work) looking at it. The best feature is the "Green Box" in the center of the page that updates constantly with links to the latest breaking political news. There's also a black banner at the top of the screen that updates automatically with the latest posts from the top 100 blogs (including this one). And on the right side of the screen, there's a box that posts all of the latest poll results as soon as they're published. It's a fantastic way to keep apprised of everything that's going on without having to click around to a bunch of different websites. Good stuff.
Finally, while I'm giving shout outs to good ideas, I've been meaning to provide a link to this. It's a site created by Obama supporters (not the campaign) to help other Obama supporters and volunteers travel to swing states and find accommodations once there. It's a creative idea, and it's one of the reasons I remain cautiously optimistic that Obama will win this thing. His supporters are unusually enthusiastic and innovative. That's got to count for something.
UPDATE: Okay, here are the results of yesterday's Online 100 poll. It was close. 49% think Obama will win. 48% say McCain. What I found more interesting than the top line results, though, is who voted for whom. According to the data they sent me, 76% percent of left-leaners thought Obama would win, compared to only 18% of right-leaners (58% of those in the "center" thought Obama would win). I find it strange that each side is so confident. That can't be the normal state of affairs in presidential elections. Even more interesting was the mainstream media/blogosphere breakdown of the vote. According to the data that was sent to me, only 31% of mainstream media figures in the poll thought Obama would win, compared to 67% of bloggers. That's a wide gulf of opinion. I'm not sure if that reflects a rightward slant to the mainstream media participants in the poll or some kind of inside-the-beltway conventional wisdom that isn't as prevalent among the bloggers in the poll. Either way it's interesting.
The PoliticsHome Online 100 Panel consists of the 100 leading online voices in the United States. Each day until November 4th, the 'Online100' panel will answer 5 strategic questions anonymously and the results will be posted on PoliticsHome. . . .I'm not sure how PolitcsHome went about determining who the "100 leading online voices in the United States" were, but apparently I'm one of them, which means that my vote gets to cancel out Karl Rove's every morning. Not bad for some anonymous dude on the internets.
The panel is carefully weighted between mainstream online media (names like Mark Halperin, Karl Rove, Gerard Baker, Mike Allen, Jonah Goldberg, Joe Klein, Dana Milbank, Andrew Sullivan, Jake Tapper, Chuck Todd, Michael Tomasky, Danny Wattenberg) national bloggers (such as Arianna Huffington, Sidney Blumenthal, Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs, Eric Alterman of Media Matters, Lucianne Goldberg, Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake, Jon Henke of The Next Right, Ken Layne of Wonkette, Jesse Taylor of Pandagon, Joe Trippi) and statewide bloggers.
Seriously, though, it's an interesting idea. The goal is to gauge opinion among political junkies, among the people who are following the election the closest, and to see how that opinion differs among various groups (left vs. right, mainstream media vs. bloggers, etc.). And the questions that are being asked are not ideological in nature, but rather predictive or strategic, so opinions aren't likely to breakdown along obvious partisan lines. For example, in the first published poll, we were asked what Obama's greatest strategic error was in the campaign so far. A majority of respondents said that his biggest error was the way his campaign responded to Sarah Palin's selection as running mate. That surprised me. I thought more people would have pointed to his choice not to select Hillary Clinton as his running mate (I don't agree with that assessment, but I still thought it would be the most common answer).
Today the panel was asked to predict who would win the election. The official results should be published tomorrow morning, and I think they're going to be interesting.
It's probably also worth pointing out that PoliticsHome itself is a fantastic political website. I wasn't familiar with it until I was asked to participate in this project, but I now spend most of my day (at least when I'm not doing real work) looking at it. The best feature is the "Green Box" in the center of the page that updates constantly with links to the latest breaking political news. There's also a black banner at the top of the screen that updates automatically with the latest posts from the top 100 blogs (including this one). And on the right side of the screen, there's a box that posts all of the latest poll results as soon as they're published. It's a fantastic way to keep apprised of everything that's going on without having to click around to a bunch of different websites. Good stuff.
Finally, while I'm giving shout outs to good ideas, I've been meaning to provide a link to this. It's a site created by Obama supporters (not the campaign) to help other Obama supporters and volunteers travel to swing states and find accommodations once there. It's a creative idea, and it's one of the reasons I remain cautiously optimistic that Obama will win this thing. His supporters are unusually enthusiastic and innovative. That's got to count for something.
UPDATE: Okay, here are the results of yesterday's Online 100 poll. It was close. 49% think Obama will win. 48% say McCain. What I found more interesting than the top line results, though, is who voted for whom. According to the data they sent me, 76% percent of left-leaners thought Obama would win, compared to only 18% of right-leaners (58% of those in the "center" thought Obama would win). I find it strange that each side is so confident. That can't be the normal state of affairs in presidential elections. Even more interesting was the mainstream media/blogosphere breakdown of the vote. According to the data that was sent to me, only 31% of mainstream media figures in the poll thought Obama would win, compared to 67% of bloggers. That's a wide gulf of opinion. I'm not sure if that reflects a rightward slant to the mainstream media participants in the poll or some kind of inside-the-beltway conventional wisdom that isn't as prevalent among the bloggers in the poll. Either way it's interesting.
posted by A.L. at 9:49 PM
5 Comments:
Thanks but no thanks. Conservatives too maddening.
Wow! as if I needed more ways to fritter away the hours. But a nice site all the same. Thanks for the link.
Maybe I'll find an answer to the thing I've always wondered about: do these neocons actually think the way they talk, or is it all just regurgitated talking points.
Alas, that site isn't my cup of tea. I like it nice and simple. Black text on a grey background perhaps, one post at a time, room for a few comments.
Congrats on the participation, though!
I can't find the list of all the ppl in the top 100. Link?
Did Greenwald get blackballed?
They haven't published the full list yet, so I have no idea who all of the other 99 are. I'll post a link when they publish the list.
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