Frank DeFilippo
Ben Jealous is a sitting duck for this gilded age and a trio of telltale polls. The economy is roaring, jobs are plentiful and people are content. And, unfortunately for Jealous, polls can be self-fulfilling prophesies.
So it’s likely to turn out that the bloviated “blue wave” is little more than a handful of Democrats on a sugar high. The Maryland Democratic Party, however, cites as compelling evidence of the promised wave the 45,543 absentee ballots that Democrats have requested, double the number sought by Republicans and independents. Maybe they were moved by Taylor Swift’s lyrical mission statement.
It has been said, often enough, that polls are snapshots, not guaranteed results. The most recent polls were published, lickety-split, three in succession, showing Jealous 22 points (Goucher), 20 points (Washington Post-University of Maryland) and 18 points (Gonzales) behind the incumbent Republican governor of navy blue Maryland, Larry Hogan. They follow the unwritten law of polling that any two or more reputable polls conducted at about the same time will show essentially the same results.
