NEWS AND OPINION:
Veteran pollster John Zogby makes it a fierce point to poll voters on third-party or lesser known candidates. He is particularly irked that Libertarian hopeful Jo Jorgensen is not getting much traction in the press.
“Zogby Analytics will always include third parties in our polls. It’s a shame when you have a respected, intelligent woman as a party nominee, and the mainstream media is pretending she doesn’t exist. Now who is sexist?” asks Mr. Zogby.
“Don’t give us that business that voting for a third party is a vote for Trump or Biden. So if you don’t fall in line with the duopoly you don’t have a voice? That’s not what the founders’ of our republic and constitution ever intended to happen. Everyone has a voice: Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, and Greens, etcetera,” the pollster says.
“The presidential race is close and is a far better representation when you include third parties,” Mr. Zogby adds.
And here’s what he found in a precise presidential poll which indeed includes the third-party folks.
Democrat Joseph R. Biden got 45.5% of the vote, President Trump polled at 43.4%, Libertarian Jo Jorgensen landed 4.5%, and Green Party hopeful Howie Hawkins garnered 1.5%. Another 5.2% of the respondents were not sure of their choice.
The Zogby Analytics survey of 883 likely U.S. voters was conducted Sept. 25-27 and released Wednesday.
YOUR LIBERTARIAN UPDATE
Libertarian Party chairman Joseph Bishop-Henchman reports that the “campaign of Jo Jorgensen for president and Jeremy ’Spike’ Cohen for vice president” has met all states’ ballot-access requirements.
“Therefore, the Libertarian ticket is now officially on the ballot in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia. American voters — regardless of where they live — will see the Jorgensen-Cohen ticket on their ballots,” he says.
Ms. Jorgensen, incidentally, has a doctorate in psychology and is currently a full-time senior lecturer at Clemson University. Mr. Cohen is a web design and media entrepreneur who also hosts a podcast titled “The Muddied Waters of Freedom.”
According to the Libertarian Party, the running mates advocate free-market health care to lower medical costs, a foreign policy of nonintervention, and an end to the “failed and destructive war on drugs.”
The candidates are not holding back, meanwhile.
“Raise your hand if you are done voting for the lesser evil,” notes one pitch from Ms. Jorgensen’s campaign outreach.
TRUMP VS. BIDEN: DUELING OR COMPETING?
Most of the known universe is now aware that President Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joseph R. Biden will each face the nation on Thursday night with separate televised town halls. The news media, meanwhile, is more than delighted to cover the two pop-up town halls featuring incumbent and challenger.
The coverage, however, is saturated with two adjectives. The town-hall meetings are being described in multiple news outlets as “dueling” or “competing” with one another. So. Who chose what adjective? Here’s a small sampling:
Among the “dueling” crowd: Fox News, The Associated Press, Bloomberg News, UPI, The Hollywood Reporter, MarketWatch, The Guardian, U.S. News & World Report, Chicago Tribune, The Washington Examiner, The Times of India, Barron’s and Bangkok Post.
Among the “competing” crowd: CNN, USA Today, The New York Times, The New York Post, New York magazine, The Hill, The Wrap, NewsNation and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
A TRILLION TREES
A new branch of government? Actually, it’s lots of branches. President Trump has signed a new Executive Order which vows to manage the nation’s forest in partnership with states, communities, tribes, nonprofits and private groups.
The order also follows through on a commitment made earlier this year to support the One Trillion Trees Initiative, which promises to grow and conserve a trillion trees around the planet.
The massive project was launched in January at the World Economic Forum in January by BirdLife International, Wildlife Conservation Society and World Wildlife Fund — all three active in 100 countries. Yes, there is now a U.S. One Trillion Trees Interagency Council, chaired by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.
Mr. Trump has good timing. This green-minded, global-style gesture may win him some support from the vast tree-hugging voter bloc when the time comes. It also has been applauded as a positive bipartisan move by the president.
“There’s a reason that Trillion Trees as a policy initiative has taken root on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. It’s a meaningful, common-sense approach to mitigating climate change that Republicans and Democrats alike can support,” says Heather Reams, executive director of Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, a right-of-center nonprofit group.
FOXIFIED
Fox News set the record and defeated both cable news and broadcast rivals with its coverage of the vice presidential debate last week, pulling in 11.9 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.
In addition, Fox led every other network in the entire cable realm for the 40th consecutive week, drawing an average of 4.6 million viewers. MSNBC garnered 2.8 million followed by CNN with 2.7 million, TBS (2.4 million) and ESPN (2 million). “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and “Hannity” remain the two top prime-time draws, attracting 5.1 million and 4.7 million viewers, respectively.
POLL DU JOUR
• 79% of U.S. adults say in-person polling places will be run safely, without spreading COVID-19; 91% of those who support President Trump and 70% of those who support Joseph R. Biden agree.
• 66% overall say that after votes are countered, “it will be clear who won the election”; 55% of Trump supporters and 76% of Biden supporters agree.
• 52% say that mail-in ballots will be delivered in time to be counted; 33% of Trump supporters and 67% of Biden supporters agree.
• 50% overall say America will know who won the election within a day or two of Election Day; 50% of Republicans and 50% of Democrats agree.
Source: A Pew Research Center poll of 11,929 U.S. adults conducted from Sept. 30 TO Oct. 5.
• Kindly follow Jennifer Harper on Twitter @HarperBulletin.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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