Clinton's surge in polls, real or virtual?

As expected, polls show Hillary Clinton received the “bump” in the polls that candidates typically receive following their party’s presidential nomination – but did a major polling group cook its results to ensure the public saw a surge?

In the wake of the Democrats’ four-day meeting in Philadelphia, analysts expected Mrs. Clinton to get a bounce in the polls – and she did. A CBS poll had her up by seven points (46-39) after the race had been tied at 42 following the GOP convention. And another poll conducted by Morning Consult showed Clinton up by three points (43-40) after trailing Trump by four points (44-40) following the Republican gathering in Cleveland.

At least one media watchdog suggests the bounce may be the result of Democrats receiving as much as 40 percent more media coverage than the Republicans did during their convention in Cleveland.

Regardless, conservative activists aren’t surprised the former first lady and secretary of state got the bump in the polls. But Robert Knight, a senior fellow at the American Civil Rights Union, says the next few weeks will be most telling as the candidates go out across the country and try to make their case.

“We’ll see whether Americans essentially want more government, more welfare – basically the whole Democratic socialist vision – or [whether] they want to scale it back [and if] they trust Donald Trump to do that,” he offers. “It will be interesting to see which vision of America the American people embrace.”

Sandy Rios is director of governmental affairs at the American Family Association. While polls are important to watch, she argues they can be made to say whatever the pollster wants.

“Reuters came out with a poll immediately following the convention and Democratic pollster Pat Caddell said from his analysis, Reuters had manipulated the data. They had gone back into the data and worked with it until they got the desired result.”

Reuters‘ “cooking” of the poll results, said Caddell, shows what the media is willing to do to get Clinton elected – essentially manufacturing a sudden surge for Mrs. Clinton.

“This poll [by Reuters] is nothing but a part of a media offensive,” stated Caddell. “In the 45 years since I was a child, in top-level presidential campaigns, I have never seen the media on such a jihad, and so involved in hiding facts, and not following up. This is a crisis of democracy, what the press is now doing.”

Reuters, he said, didn’t just “tweak their procedure – they cooked it.”

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