In the immortal words of President Reagan, "Well, there they go again!" The pollsters that is...

On September 12, we were treated to the news that President Bush is “slipping” in the polls again. He was up to almost 42 percent in a recent Gallup poll, but now he’s at around 39 percent. In addition, Gallup shows support of the Iraq War continues to plunge, and approval of the Republican controlled Congress is in the 20s.

Now not all polls show the President and Congress doing as poorly, but after all, Gallup is one of the most prestigious polling firms around, according to political “experts.”

The result is that many Republican voters and even activists are demoralized as we face the November 2006 congressional elections. Meanwhile, some Democrat members of Congress are so confident they will take back the House and maybe even the senate, that they’re measuring curtains for their new offices.

The simple truth is that most presidential approval polls done by Newsweek, Gallup, Time Magazine and several other prestigious organizations are meaningless.   Why? Because between as many as 60 percent of the people asked probably won’t vote in the upcoming election.

The great political website RealClearPolitics.com keeps a running tally of the presidential approval polls. If you click on the links to the full poll results and read the fine print, you’ll find the vast majority including the most recent Gallup Poll, are of “American adults.” Some, such as Fox News Opinion Dynamics, are of “registered voters”, but even that number doesn’t reflect how people who are likely to vote this fall actually feel.

The way most presidential approval polls are conducted, survey respondents are simply asked whether they are over the age of 18. They are not asked if they are registered to vote, and it’s not even determined whether they are likely to vote in the next election.

Why is this important? Consider the following:

• For the past several decades, only 40 to 55 percent of Americans of voting age have bothered to go to the polls!
  
• Even in 2004, a record breaking year for turnout, 44 percent of the voting age population did not vote.
• Turnout in 1998 and 2002, non presidential years, were below 40 percent. That means 6 out of 10 people of voting age didn't vote.
• Voter turnout in 2006, will likely fall below 50 percent again, although polarization because of the Iraq War might spark greater than normal turnout for a non-presidential year. Most political experts estimate turnout will not be much over 50 percent.
  

Why do pollsters include non-voters in their polls? Because it takes a lot of time and effort to screen potential respondents. If you’re only asking people their age, you don’t have to call as many people. Once you narrow the requirements for participation, the more expensive your effort becomes. (We won’t even go into the way some pollsters skew their results by surveying more Democrats than Republicans or how the wording of the question often can significantly change the results.)

My point is that when poll results are reported in the media, the fact that non-voters are included in the surveys is not mentioned, or at the most under-played. As a result, Democrats and liberals continually crow that most Americans disapprove of this President and think we're losing the war. After all, that's what the polls say.

A more devious mind than mine might conclude that this is done deliberately to suppress the conservative Republican vote. Which is why supporters of President Bush and the War on Terror can't let bogus poll results demoralize us to the point that we don't vote in November. While President Bush and the Republican Congress leave a lot to be desired, especially when it comes to spending and immigration reform, electing a Democrat Congress would be a disaster and the very safety of our families would be threatened.

The bottom line is that supporters of the War on Terror haven't lost Congress yet. It all depends on who is better getting out the vote. After all,  the only poll that matters is the one conducted on Election Day.

Note:  For detailed voter turnout statistics, check out George Mason University's United States Election Project here.  One interesting statistic is that nearly 3 percent of people of voting age are not eligible to vote because they are felons or non-citizens.

I was listening to a podcast of Hugh Hewitt yesterday, when I heard an absolutely incredible (to me, anyway) statement from a liberal caller.

This addle-brained jerk chided Hugh for focusing much of his show on the fatal shooting in Seattle, the Israeli-Hezbollah War, and Cuba’s future without Castro. To him, it was more important to focus attention on Mel Gibson’s drunken anti-Jewish ravings than on the murderous actions of terrorists and a communist dictator.

I then did a quick check of the lefty blogosphere and found post after post condemning Mel Gibson for offending Jews. Not a paragraph of condemnation of the murderous actions of Castro or Hezbollah. What little commentary I found on the Seattle incident painted the shootings as the actions of a mentally ill person, rather than a terrorist.

This situation confirms what I’ve suspected for a long time… to liberals what you think or say is more odious than what you do!  Liberals and their fellow travelers in the mainstream media are quick to jump on “offensive” statements by conservatives such as Trent Lott or Mel Gibson, and liberals love to impose speech codes on students on our college campuses.

But when terrorists kill thousands by flying airplanes into the Pentagon and Twin Towers,  cut off heads in Iraq or fire rockets into Israeli cities, lefties are loathe to criticize. Often they even justify the actions by saying the murderers must have been provoked.

Liberals continue to show their inability to prioritize evil in this world. They always love to attack what they perceive to be bigotry or injustices by America, but tend to minimize or even ignore atrocities committed by the enemies of Western civilization. And these people believe they should rule America. I don’t think so…

Update:  After I wrote this, I came across Hugh's excellent commentary, The Collapse of Judgement. He, of course, says it much more eloquently than I ever could. Also, Media Research Center's Brent Bozell points out that while Hollywood and the left have gone bonkers over Mel's remarks, the somehow fail to object to offensive statements about Christians and Catholics. What a surprise!

Why does Israel have its act together on support for its actions against terrorists, but we Americans can’t seem to agree that there even is a war?

A recent poll shows nearly 90 percent of Israeli’s support the military action against Islamic terrorists.  That’s pretty remarkable in a country deeply divided by political ideology. Even that country’s leftist leaders are applauding the Israeli Defense Force’s actions against Hezbollah and Hamas.

Meanwhile, some Democrat members of Congress call for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops. Others are calling for impeachment of the President for using everything at his disposal to stop terrorist attacks in the U.S. And we can’t forget the leftie blogosphere, Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Georgia) and film maker Michael Moore, who actually accuse our President of either allowing or even plotting the 9-1-1 attacks.

To make things even worse, Bush haters in the media do everything they can to undermine success in Iraq by publishing classified secrets vital to national security and emphasize the negative while ignoring real progress in Iraq. Biased news coverage is instrumental in eroding public support of the Global War on Terror. No wonder public support for the war is well under 50 percent.

We never would have won World War II if President Roosevelt had to deal with the same kind of attacks from Congress and the media that President Bush faces every minute of every day. What if the media had exposed the fact that the U.S. had broken Germany’s Enigma code? What if the media had emphasized the tens of thousands of Americans killed in the D-Day invasion? What if the media had ignored atrocities by the Japanese and Germans while exposing allegations of mistreatment at U.S. Prisoner of War camps? What if Republican members of Congress had called for impeachment of President Roosevelt for using the tools of the Executive Branch to fight the war? I contend that if those things had happened, we'd the official language of Europe and even the U.S. would be German, and most, if not all, of the world's Jews would be dead.

Israeli citizens, are very much aware that they are fighting for the very survival of the nation. That’s why they have united behind their government’s actions. It’s time for President Bush’s rational political and ideological opponents to make the same realization and present a united front in the Global War on Terror. Unfortunately, it probably won't happen barring another 911 type of attack on the U.S. But our lives and very existence as a free nation depend on it.

As an American citizen, I believe my right to vote is the most important right guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution. That’s why I was outraged last week when a liberal judge from Atlanta threw out Georgia's photo identification law just before the July 18^th Primary Election.

The law had been ruled unconstitutional last year because it required people to pay for the picture IDs, which would be a major problem for the poor, elderly, disabled and minority voters. So, the legislature changed the law earlier this year making the IDs free. Provisions were also made for people without transportation.

Well, those changes didn’t seem to impress Fulton County Superior Court Judge Melvin Westmoreland. He still found that the photo ID requirement placed “a restrictive condition on the right of a citizen to vote.”

Give me a break! Even the poor, disabled, elderly and minorities have to show IDs to purchase certain items or cash checks. But for some reason, it’s an onerous burden for them to prove who they are when they go to vote?

The primary opponents to the new photo ID law are liberals and Democrats, including Secretary of State Cathy Cox and former Governor Roy Barnes (also known as “King Roy.”) They claim that hundreds of thousands of people will be shut out of the election process.

However, the dirty little secret is that Democrats are losing so many voters due to their increasingly liberal positions, they are turning to voter fraud and intimidation to make up the difference.

Don’t believe me? Read this comprehensive 2005 report from the non-partisan, non-profit American Center for Voting Rights. The group investigated hundreds of allegations of voter fraud, voter registration fraud and voter suppression in the 2004 election. The report documented proven voter fraud and suppression by Democrats in 16 states, primarily the so-called “swing” states important to the outcome of the presidential election. It makes pretty interesting reading.

Now some people argue that there is no need for voter fraud law in Georgia because there have been no charges of voter fraud here. Perhaps not recently, but since I’ve only lived here two years, I can't verify that voter fraud hasn't occurred in the past. That doesn't mean, however, it won’t be tried in the future.

After all, in just four years the Democrats have lost their lock on Georgia state government. They just might be tempted to recruit illegal aliens, convicted felons and even dead people to make up their loss in the electoral base. They sure haven't been bashful about trying it in Florida, Alabama, Washington, Ohio, Wisconsin, etc.

Even putting that possibility aside, I believe all American citizens' right to vote in a fair, non-fraudulent election is sacred and must be protected. It makes me boil to think that my vote could be cancelled out by a fraudulent vote.

I used to live in Washington State where, in 2004, massive voter fraud stole an election from the Republican candidate for governor. A friend of mine who still lives there asked me, “why should I even vote anymore if it’s not going to count?”

I agree. And I don’t want that to happen in Georgia or anywhere else in the U.S. How can we as Americans be free if our elections aren’t fair?

Fortunately, Republican Governor Sonny Perdue is fighting the ruling and will take it to a higher court. So far, a similar law in Indiana has survived court challenges. So perhaps common sense will prevail in Georgia’s case. Stranger things have happened.