Stop The Dial Testing During Debates
I mean stop showing it in real time. I agree with 538.com
It’s not that the squiggly lines aren’t fun to watch. Rather, they’re too much fun to watch. It’s hard to avert your eyes from them. It’s hard to separate your own, independent reaction from theirs. And it’s certainly hard to integrate back into to the non-squiggly universe once you’ve gotten hooked on the squigglys.
I kept trying to break away from CNN during the last debate because I wanted my own reactions – but I kept flipping back to see how this line or that line tested.
[Also – the CNN focus group doing the dialing was clearly not “undecided” but was in the tank for McCain from the get go.]
There are lots of channels that don’t show it.
I found watching the lines on CNN was kind of like watching a car crash.
Undecided this close to the election? They have to be the dumbest 100 people in Ohio.
I guess if you live in Ohio, polling is kind of a sport. If you say you are undecided, you probably get more interesting questions, and more opportunity to participate.
It’s kind of like taking off your wedding ring in a bar.
I used to like the line. But I turned it off for the last debate because it is the political junky equivalent of a laugh track.
I like to think that I don’t have to be told how it is playing with voters. Of course, I do need to be told, since I haven’t been an undecided voter for over a year.
Bill Maher wanted the dial lines stopped because every time they went to McCain he thought the man had died.
But I do think that the dial lines are overkill. CNN should offer a debate with the dial lines after the debate is over, so the obsessives can see the polling.