You can fool all of the people some of the time....

I'll say right up front that I don't know anything about the technical aspects of polling although like anyone involved or interested in politics I confess to being drawn to them. But the media's fascination - no make that unquestioning reliance - with Public Policy Polling's running numbers and commentary is absolutely astonishing.

Again, I don't know whether the technical process by which PPP does its polling is valid or not. I do know that over the course of the last few months knowledgeable political types such as Carter Wrenn and Richard Moore have questioned the reliability of PPP's numbers. What I do know is what Tom Jensen, the wizened guru of PPP commentary (Is he maybe 24 years old?) told me over coffee about how PPP operates.That's the same Tom Jensen who confessed in one blog entry that he didn't bother to watch any of the gubernatorial debates.

PPP is owned and funded by Dean Debnam, a wealthy, active democrat who is interested in polling. PPP doesn't really have any business clients, so it's not really like a legitimate polling company whose accuracy and professionalism drives its income. No, PPP is just out there doing its thing, messing around and pontificating over the results that its polls come up with.

And the worst part of it all, is that the media acts like this is some reliable, professional operation that doesn't have a political agenda. Does the media ask any questions about the technical accuracy of the polling sample used by PPP? Or ask if PPP has an agenda? No,unfortunately it doesn't.

PPP's sage, Tom Jensen, active democrat, recently did a series of articles, published by papers around the state giving his analysis of the governor's race and who was doing what and why. This kid and PPP have a political agenda, and the mainstream media acts like the poll was performed by the twelve disciples. Oh, by the way, the Associated Press doesn't report PPP's results because it only reports polls that they consider reliable.

So, there's my take on the media's coverage of polling. Sometime soon you may see the creation of ORR Polling, a family operation in which my three older children, who actually are professionals in market research and polling, and I have fun doing our own polls. Then I'll pontificate on what those polling results that I've created really mean. I can see it now. "Orr leads by 30 as other candidates fall by the wayside!" And I'll be counting on lots of press coverage.

So having said all this I'll confess that it's late, I'm tired, and it's a full moon but somebody had to say. So check this entry for typos, call up Tom Jensen for a comment and don't pay much attention to the real issues facing the state.