Monday Smackdown: Yet Another Washington Post Edition--This Time It's Katie Zezima
Live from the Journamalists' Self-Made Gehenna: Yet another reason friends don't let friends waste time--or pay for--the Washington Post: Katie Zezima of the Washington Post: We see what you did there!
Jacob Bacharach: WaPo-Style Data Journalism:
Data Journalism: If you control for all the factors that show a favorite in an opinion poll, a shocking tie emerges! https://t.co/WYhK2JCfjR
— Jacob Bacharach (@jakebackpack) August 7, 2016
The only reason I can think that anyone bother to write a story on how "support is nearly split among independent-leaning white women" is that word has come down from on high not to actually focus on the state of the election--that Hillary Rodham Clinton has a 4%-point lead and odds of victory that are 2-to-1 in her favor--or even on women's preferences--her "23-point lead", but to make it look closer than it is to the casual reader.
But why would word come down from on high to make it look closer than it is?
Katie Zezima: : [In suburban Virginia, women are torn about whom to vote for this fall][]:
Hillary Clinton holds a 23-point lead over Republican nominee Donald Trump among women. But the support is nearly split among independent-leaning white women, with 47 percent favoring Clinton and 46 percent Trump. And many young women are brushing off any significance in Clinton’s being the first woman to be a major-party presidential nominee.... Women here on a steamy afternoon shows that they are divided about whom to vote for, with some praising Trump’s business record and willingness to dispense with political correctness....
Trump held a rally at a high school here Tuesday, underscoring the importance of the county, one of the richest in the nation. Demographically, it is nearly 70 percent white, 18 percent Asian, 7.9 percent black and 13.6 percent Latino. “You know, this is Loudoun County. Loudoun County’s a big deal,” Trump said in an interview with The Washington Post. Trump owns a golf course in the county.... Bari Barton Cooper, a lawyer who now stays at home to raise her children, called Loudoun “a true epicenter and a bellwether of where Virginia will go. Loudoun County is a very moderate county,” she said. “The people who are Democrats, at least in Ashburn, are people who can see you don’t always need to elect a Democrat to find someone who supports your values.”
In this election, however, Cooper is voting for Clinton.... Cathy Brown, 53, who cares for her ill husband full time, said there are no circumstances under which she could vote for Clinton.... Jackie Tompkins of Ashburn said she also will vote for Trump, whom she called the “lesser of two evils.”... Barbara Marshall said she is a staunch Republican who can’t remember the last time she voted for a Democrat. But she will in November.... Neelum Patel, a 20-year-old student at the University of Virginia, supported Bernie Sanders but now plans to vote for Clinton.... For Dana Cox, a retired teacher, Trump’s comments about the Khan family were too much and solidified her decision to vote for Clinton.... Others, like Andrea Ramsdell, remain undecided.... “But if I have to vote for someone, it will probably be Trump,” she said.
