Poor Chris Wallace, did you see him this morning on Fox News Sunday have to painfully flash that graphic up there --you know, the one showing Bush and Kerry tied -- before quickly shunting it aside? (They immediately replaced it with -- and left on screen far longer -- a "poll of polls" graphic showing Bush up two points.)
Hmmm...that's funny, but I seem to recall that when Bush was +5, according to Fox News's own poll just three days ago, the network seemed to gleefully, and quite frequently, tout Bush's lead. The president, after all, was surging. Now that Bush is tied, according to Fox News, they don't want to report their own poll numbers. (Yes, I admit that I like saying, with deep intonation of authority, "according to Fox News"; try it at home, it's fun.)
The truth is - and here's their own damn memo, if you doubt me - that, according to Fox News (hehehe), among likely voters Bush went from a 7-point lead on Oct 17/18, to five points by Oct 27/28, to two points on Oct28/29, to tied as of today. Even with his shoes on, Fred Barnes can calculate that as a 7-point drop in two weeks. Here's a fun experiment: Try to imagine if the president had improved seven points during the past two weeks: Fox News would have a perma-graphic in the bottom-right corner of the screen, and Kristol and the Beltway Boys would be chirp, chirp, chirping!
If Fox News cannot report their own poll numbers, what will they resort to next? Here's a suggestion, Roger Ailes: Borrow a page from the Bush playbook and create long-term averages by grouping recent numbers with older ones. For example, much like my "average" tax cut in a room with 98 other state university professors, plus Bill Gates, is something in the five figures, why not average all the "favorability" numbers for Bush since, oh, mid-September 2001, when they were at their highest? I'd bet the average during the past three years is at least 60 percent - maybe 65 percent - favorable.
Then report: "Bush's average favorability rating as a post-9/11 president is 65 percent."