Blunt Buys Poll to Show He's 'Popular' and Kraske Plays Along

At the end of his KC Star column today, Steve Kraske throws a rope to the Governor and gives him a few grafs of newspaper real estate to sell some spin about his crushing unpopularity.

Last week, Missouri Republicans were trumpeting a new poll (by a GOP firm) that showed Gov. Matt Blunt with far better job approval numbers than what's been determined by another survey firm.

American Viewpoint had Blunt at 46 percent approve, 44 percent disapprove.

Republicans say it's time to set the record straight. They're tired of all the attention being paid to unreliable polls.

The Blunt gang is tired of "unreliable" polls. Apparently, the Blunt standard for reliability hinges wholly upon who pays for a poll; if his campaign pays for it, it's reliable --if an independent entity pays for it, it's unreliable.

You see, American Viewpoint polling, the firm which did the poll touted by Blunt and shared by Kraske, is paid by the Blunt campaign to do polling. In fact, over the last two years, American Viewpoint has been paid a minimum of $20,275 by Missourians for Matt Blunt.

Conversely, KCTV-TV in Kansas City sponsored a recent 'unreliable' poll showing Blunt's numbers at 37% approval, 57% disapproval.

Governor Blunt has a real problem on his hands, with a re-election fight just 21 months away and most Missourians disapproving of the job he's done. Worse for him, Blunt's weaknesses have several of his fellow GOPers considering a primary challenge of the damaged Governor. Sorely in need of something to quiet primary speculation and discourage potential challengers, it makes sense that Blunt would have his paid pollsters put together a poll that tells him what he thinks people need to hear.

What doesn't make sense is that Steve Kraske reports the poll straight, either unaware of the fact that the survey came from the Blunt camp's pollster or unwilling to share that fact with his readers (he identifies American Viewpoint as a "GOP firm" but not as a paid Blunt consultant). Since the governor is using Kraske's column to ask people to weigh the value of one set of poll results against the value of another that reached different conclusions, it is incumbent upon the columnist to make sure the relevant facts about each are reported. Kraske didn't do that.

Over the past two years, Governor Blunt has proven himself more than capable of misleading us through dishonesty, overt or covert. He needs no help on that front from the press.