You might have read the following opening paragraphs in a recent CarolinaJournal.com Daily Journal:
The pundits pounced. Exit polls from the just-concluded New Hampshire primary had indicated that Bernie Sanders walloped Hillary Clinton, 92-to-6, among Democratic presidential primary voters who considered honesty to be the most important factor in choosing a candidate.
While talking heads on one of the nation’s leading cable television networks debated that statistic’s impact on the Democratic nomination contest, this observer waited for one more crucial piece of information. It never arrived.
Sanders’ wide margin over Clinton in the “honesty” department certainly qualifies as news. But its significance depends to a large degree on one additional data point: How many people consider a candidate’s “honesty” to be the most important factor?
If 75 percent of voters label “honesty” their No. 1 priority, that means bad news for the former secretary of state’s presidential bid. If 40 percent consider a candidate’s honesty before any other factor, that’s still an obstacle for a candidate who loses that battle by a roughly 15-1 margin.
But what if only 5 percent of voters believe “honesty” trumps all other factors? Then Clinton’s honesty deficit, while disturbing, is likely to have less impact on her overall electoral prospects.
The professional TV prognosticators never mentioned that crucial data point, at least before my remote flipped to another channel.
Those observations came to mind as I read Matthew Continetti‘s latest “Mediacracy” column for Commentary magazine. Continetti supplies the missing information (emphasis added).
Bernie Sanders trounced Hillary Clinton by more than 20 points in February’s New Hampshire primary.t’s the exit poll that ought really to worry Clinton, her campaign, and her fans in the media. Why? Because a third of the Democratic primary electorate said honesty was the top quality they are looking for in a presidential candidate. And these voters broke for Sanders by one of the most whopping, staggering margins I have ever seen: He won them 92 percent to 6 percent.
The same thing happened in the Iowa caucuses. Sanders and Clinton basically tied, but there, too, the Vermont senator benefited from distrust of Clinton. About a quarter of Iowa Democrats said honesty was the most important quality in a candidate. Sanders won these voters 83 percent to 10 percent.
Thanks, Matt, for understanding the need to flesh out the details and provide a more complete picture of the polling data.