Friday, March 02, 2007

Time For The Old Rope-A-Dope

While this (Decima) poll is not too bad, this one (Angus Reid) is downright ugly.

I am reminded of of the Ali-Foreman fight:

Ali instead started to lie on the ropes towards the end of the 1st round, and used the ropes throughout the rest of the fight. Foreman's strategy for the fight was to cut off the ring and get Ali to the ropes so that he could hit Ali and try to knock him out, so since Ali was willingly lying on the ropes Foreman would plant himself in front of Ali and punch Ali as hard as he could. Foreman landed constant blows to the body, but had trouble landing punches to the head. Foreman began to tire from all the punches he threw at Ali to no effect, and with the punches he was taking from Ali, Foreman was visibly finished by the 5th round. Ali eventually knocked him out in the 8th round. Ali had regained the Heavyweight title with this strategy of lying on the ropes, and allowed one of the hardest punchers of all time to swing away at him.

In other words, avoid an election long enough for the polls to turn around and let the Tories punch themselves out.

15 comments:

Peter said...

BCL embarassing himself over at Coynes: The Libs will also be out offering a new compromise, and it will look very much like the October(?) one that the Tories reneged on when this stuff was all back in committee. Harper will cry terrorist whenever he sees Liberal red, but will end up slandering someone's five year old daughter. Compromise will be reached. Tory support will remain below its 2006 election levels.


Umm, yeah whatever.

bigcitylib said...

Haven't embarrassed myself yet. All these events have not played themselves out yet.

Walks With Coffee said...

the CPoC propaganda machine will not tire.

Anonymous said...

oh yes U are . . . a liberal embarassment, but very entertaining for everyone else, very entertaining indeed.

your analysis is both child like and simplistic and exposes your desperation.

"Where is Wencke ??

bigcitylib said...

Actually, the boxing metaphor is rather elegant, still stuck. Why do you think Harper wants to go NOW? Gov. peters out after March unless he gets a majority.

Anonymous said...

these tory polling firms push this in our faces before a break and a budget just to make people believe the 'cons' are being supported by the majority...its all a scam...first they start with the libs being ahead and then just before the break...they put forth'the big one' I am just waiting for Greggs strategic to follow suit..keep faith dear libs but keep bob rae out of ontario...they dont like him.

Anonymous said...

"Scott Diatribes" sets out a very, very interesting SES survey

The trouble with compulsive liars (Tories) they can't stop. But we all know if you don't tell the truth the lies will come back to haunt you.

What is with the media? Are they afraid of Harper?

Walks With Coffee said...

"What is with the media? Are they afraid of Harper? "

Those in the media that like bullies are prone to pump them.

Oxford County Liberals said...

Just a brief note BCL.. this happens to be an online survey. While the numbers look bad and are of some concern, online survey's aren't exactly treated by everyone as accurate an reflection as your traditional telephone survey.

bigcitylib said...

Scott, you're probably right. For example, a telephone poll uses area code and postal code info and stats canada info to peg pretty clearly the socio economic status of their respondents. I don't know how an online poll does the same thing.

Nevertheless,I don't doubt the general message of either of these polls.

Ti-Guy said...

What is with the media? Are they afraid of Harper?

The last time I talked to someone at the Toronto Sun, I had the feeling I was talking to a drug dealer, a pimp, or a used-car salesman.

Some in the media are just really dumb and classless. Some are ethically-challenged careerists who value their jobs more than the vocation journalism is supposed to be. And most (the owners) are just garden-variety capitalists. As long as the bottom line is healthy, they simply do not care. If they could, they'd feature nothing but hard-core pornography; as long as it sold adverstising.

Anonymous said...

It's not polite to refer to one's own analogy as 'elegant'.

Anonymous said...

Albertans tend to have a selcetive memory of history.

Before the National Energy Program, Western Oil companies had a supply and distribution monopoly in Eastern Canada. It was illegal for oil to arrive in Canada anywhere East of the Ottawa Valley and be sold there.

Albertans forget that.

But if they want to obsess about the NEP they needn't read anything. A picture is worth a thousand words, like the picture of Premier Lougheed toasting the NEP when it became law. That's right. The Premier of Alberta. Go look it up. The province of Alberta ushered in the NEP with great celebration. Only when the markets went whack did they change their minds about it.

Go look it up.

Anonymous said...

woops - that post ended up in the wrong comments section. God damn this new blogger. How the cripes did that happen?

JimBobby said...

Whooee! Well, BigCity, you might be right an' Harpoon may toss all his spears prematurely an' leave the voters wantin' whenever they finally get around t' havin' an electionvote. I ain't sure the Dionysians can afford t' lay on the ropes like Ali done.

Ali knew how t' throw a punch an' he was ready t' dole out some punishment when ol' Georgie tired hisself out. Dion better be holdin' back fer a dang good reason or else he'll just get further behind while the undecideds jump on Harpoon's bandwagon.

Anyways, I like boxin' analogies an' maybe they're elegant an' maybe they're anachronistic references to a brutal spectacle but I like 'em an' use 'em sometimes.

I also like the polls that show the gal I adore, Earth Mother Lizzie May, an' her band o' treehuggin' Greenies climbin' all the time. The money grubbin' media Broadcast Consortium's probbly gonna wanna let her in the TV debates fer the sake o' ratings an' Dion sez he wants her in. Harpoon oughta want her in, too.

JB