Sack Of Silly: Luntz’s Post Debate New Hampshire Focus Group

Draped in sweater vest, Fran Luntz does his best daytime talk show host impression in yesterday’s post New Hampshire Democratic debate focus group.  Looking back over his previous groups, there’s certainly plenty of Hillary bashing and yesterday evening was no exception.

The group didn’t give Hillary credit for any of the specifically substantive parts of the discussion, which is simply unfair.  Whether or not you found her argument compelling is a seperate issue, but when people in the group say things as blindingly absurd as the following, I simply cannot respect the opinion:

“Her answers are not informative…they are not informative.  Well, you heard Barack’s defense and there was information in it.”

AH!  Why does everything always have to be one way or another?  Is it really impossible for people to say something like, ‘both people gave information, but Obama’s was better’ or ‘both provided some substance, but Barack was more compelling.’  Apparently not, as usual, everyone has to take an extreme position - totally one way or totally another.  It’s somewhat ironic that people are jumping on the Obama reconciliation/hope train and yet consistently refuse to be reasonable and give credit where credit is due.

This silly discussion “deafens my own ears.”  A gem phrase expressed by another focus group participant talking about Hillary Clinton:

“I want to hear what she has to say, but she deafens my own ears.”

I’m not saying the ideas expressed were necessarily inaccurate, although some simply were.  My issue really is with the unnecessarily extreme rejection of basic reality in order for some people to further support their current opinion.  I understand it, we all do it; everyone wants to cherry pick facts in order to support their opinion.  However, part of being a thoughtful individual is accepting as much of the facts as possible, even the ones that don’t comport with your world view and then reconciling the two.