TBQ Poll: Dear Heavens, Does It Ever Suck to Be Blanche Lincoln

Do you have a favorable or unfavorable impression of Blanche Lincoln?
15%  Strongly Favorable
19%  Somewhat Favorable (Favorable = 34%)
11%  Somewhat Unfavorable
46%  Strongly Unfavorable (Unfavorable = 57%)
9%    No Opinion
Thinking about the job that Blanche Lincoln is doing as U.S. Senator, would you say you approve or disapprove?
15%  Strongly Approve
23%  Somewhat Approve (Approve = 38%)
7%   Slightly Disapprove
49%  Strongly Disapprove (Disapprove = 56%)
6%   No Opinion

Roby Brock’s Talk Business Quarterly is out with the latest numbers on embattled Democratic U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln, and if you were thinking that Lincoln’s sucky poll numbers had surely bottomed out, well, that just goes to show what you know, because it just keeps getting worse. Fifty-seven percent of Arkansans hold a “strongly unfavorable” or “somewhat unfavorable” view of the state’s senior senator.

Do you think it has anything to do with her support for that reeking turd of a health care bill? No, it couldn’t be that, because that’s just insanely popular, right? Quick, we need someone to explain why that reeking turd of a health care bill is actually a net plus for Democrats, in spite of all evidence to the contrary. Over to you, Blake Rutherford!

And another thing: Am I the only one who finds it strange that TBQ continues to use GOP political strategist Clint Reed to craft these polls, when he’s consulting for the campaign for Republican state Sen. Gilbert Baker — who’s a strong contender to be Lincoln’s challenger in November? Just askin’.

(UPDATE: Roby Brock called to let me know that he typically discloses Reed’s affiliation with the Baker campaign, as well as his Democratic contributor Robert McClarty’s affiliation with that of Attorney General Dustin McDaniel—but that he’d neglected to do so in this case. He has updated his blog post with the disclosures.)

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Premature Evaluation: Or, Why Internet Polls Aren’t Worth the Paper They Aren’t Even Printed On

As a State Senate candidate, I’ve recently been the subject of a couple of “Internet polls,” in which website visitors are asked to vote for rival candidates. Even to discuss an Internet poll probably grants it too much importance, because there is no relation between actual voter behavior and an Internet poll.

After all, these were polls in which people from outside my district and minors could vote; perhaps more relevantly, someone technologically sophisticated types (which excludes me) might be able to vote multiple times from the same computer — not exactly a scientific gauge of public opinion.

Let’s look more closely at one of these polls. About a month ago, Whit Jones, proprietor of the insidesaline.com news site, polled his readers about the 2010 Senate race in District 22, which included me, my GOP primary opponent Jeremy Hutchinson and Democratic Rep. Dawn Creekmore. When I heard about this poll, I decided to vote once and then focus on more important things in my life: that is, everything else in the universe.

Robovoting

Regrettably, a supporter of mine soon brought to my attention that Hutchinson was accusing me of “robo-voting” in the poll. (Hutchinson made the same accusation in the previous Internet poll that he and I were subjected to; I assume “robo-voting” has something to do with using a computer program that repeatedly casts votes.) I immediately checked the poll, looking forward to an incredibly lopsided vote total in my favor.

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Senator Gilbert Baker Announces the Hiring of Former Huckabee for President National Press Secretary Alice Stewart

Go ask Alice. Arkansas Sen. Gilbert Baker, frontrunner in the 2010 GOP primary race to challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln, announces today that he’s hired former Mike Huckabee spokeswoman Alice Stewart as his campaign mouthpiece.

It’s all in a news release with a comically long headline, which I liked so much I pasted it in as the title for this post. She’ll be serving as deputy campaign manager and communications director. Full statement at jump.

Alice was last seen here on the Arkansas Project when she was in the running for the executive directorship of the Republican Party of Arkansas. She also has a blog, which updates even less frequently than this one, if you can believe such a thing.

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You Should Go To The SPJ Blogging Academy

The monkey! He's typing! You, there! What are you doing on Saturday? Nothing worthwhile, I assume.

Therefore I suggest you look into attending the Arkansas Society of Professional Journalists Blogging Academy: An Introduction to Community Journalism in Little Rock, where they’ll have a bunch of so-called self-styled “experts” on hand to talk about how you, too, can make a name for yourself through a time consuming, non-paying hobby.

It’s at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law School (Room 305) from 10 a.m to 2 p.m, and panel sessions will focus on ethics and legal issues, accessing government and something called “blogging best practices.” I’m on the latter panel, so I assume they’ll be holding The Arkansas Project up as an example of what not to do.

Other participants include Max Brantley of the Arkansas Times, Steve Harrelson of Under the Dome and, uh, I forget who else. Hell, I don’t know, let’s say “Jason Tolbert.” OK, so no Tolbert, I’m informed.

And best of all, it’s all free, so get thee to the Facebook page to learn more and get registered.

Lincoln on ‘Arkansas Sunday Edition’

All you  morning early risers will want to listen to Arkansas Sunday Edition with Blake Rutherford Sunday, where Blake will host a special interview with Sen. Blanche Lincoln, talking about her re-election campaign and all that other stuff. That’s on Little Rock’s 103.7 The Buzz Sunday morning from 7-9 a.m. Not to be missed!

On The Radio. Again.

Geez, Blake, get a glass. They're right there in the goddamn cabinet. I’m heading over to the KARN studios in scenic West Little Rock at 2 p.m., where guest host Alice Stewart will have me and Think Tank blogger Blake Rutherford on to chat about politics and more as Blake and I continue our ongoing “Goofus and Gallant” routine. (He’s Goofus. Obviously.)

That’s 102.9 FM/920 AM from 2-3 p.m.  Tune in!

Posting will resume later this afternoon.

Where You’ll Find Me Sunday Morning

Blake Rutheford….why, on the Arkansas Sunday Edition on The Buzz/103.7, of course, hosted by local blogging and broadcasting legend Blake Rutherford.

It’ll be me, Lance Turner and the rest of the “Not-Ready-For-9 A.M. Players” talking politics and whatever else comes up. Show kicks off at 7 a.m., and you do not want to miss it. You do not, I say!

Well, That Certainly Sucked

You may have noticed that the Arkansas Project was down all day Friday and a good part of Saturday, because it turns out that when the health department tells you you “must wash hands,” brother, do they ever mean it. They’ll shut you down so fast it’ll make your head spin.

OK, maybe that’s not how it went. My hosting provider ran into some server problems, which they tried to explain to me, but all I heard was “infested with demons.”

So I guess I maybe need to find a new hosting service, so if you’re interested in being the new home for The Arkansas Project, send your proposals! I don’t really make a lot of demands or have a lot of specifications, though I suggest that, if you want to host this site, you might wanna be pretty lawyered up, because there’s a better than even chance that you’re gonna end up as a party to a libel suit at some point.

UPDATE: We may experience another brief disruption on Monday….

Subscribe to ‘Arkansas Morning’ Update

Former U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin, who announced recently that he would not be pursuing a 2010 Senate race but now may be running for Congress against Rep. Mike Ross, because, you  know, why not, has launched a new daily e-mail update, Arkansas Morning.

It’s a political news tipsheet on state and national issues, with a good round-up of headlines from legacy media, blogs, Twitter feeds, etc. Good stuff in there— you should go over here to subscribe. (You can get a taste of recent submissions at Griffin’s blog, The Griffin Room.)

I’m not entirely sure why he’s taken to doing this all of a sudden, but I presume it’s a strategy to harvest e-mail addresses and sell them to spammers. At least that would explain why I suddenly started getting all these e-mail pitches about “Great Deals on Chinese Herbal Viagra!” And to be honest with you, I don’t think this is even real Chinese Herbal Viagra. In fact, now that I look a little closer it appears to be a Flintstones Chewable Vitamin. I can’t believe I ordered $1,200 worth, but truth be told, it was a pretty persuasive e-mail.

Someone’s Having A Birthday!

You’re not going to believe this, but it so happens that today is The Arkansas Project’s one-year anniversary, more or less. We went public on July 31, 2008, after blogging in the dark for a few days beforehand to try everything out. Oh, what a fun year we’ve had!

For all of you history buffs out there, I was looking back through The Arkansas Project archives and I came across the blog’s original business plan, in which we laid out our strategic goals for generating revenues and making this venture a sterling success. Here, let’s all take a look:

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