Difference between revisions of "1130: Poll Watching"

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Dear Comic Book People:My name is Mandela Addah. I live in Toronto, Canada.I am a professional comic scetwtpriirr seeking employment. Hopefully with you. I like to write superhero and I have had work published elsewhere.All my comic books are wholesome. They have lots of action and adventure. My comics do not have any sex, swearing, or bloody violence, and none of my books feature scantily clad women with unrealistic figures.I would like to know if you are looking for new talent. If so, confirm. I will then e-mail you a short 5 page script about a character I created called Rush. If you go over it you will see that I know my job and would be a credit to your team.Please get back to me and tel me what you think.
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{{comic
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| number    = 1130
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| date      = November 5, 2012
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| title    = Poll Watching
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| image    = poll_watching.png
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| imagesize =
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| titletext = The choices we make Tuesday could have MASSIVE and PERMANENT effects on the charts on Nate Silver's blog!
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}}
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==Explanation==
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This is a comic about the {{w|United States presidential election, 2012|2012 U.S. presidential election}}, as it was posted the day before the election on November 6, 2012 ("this Tuesday"). It is the third comic on the subject, the previous two being [[1122: Electoral Precedent]] and [[1127: Congress]].
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In the comic, [[Cueball]] is glued to his laptop reading media coverage of the election. The offscreen character remarks that Cueball should take a break, suggesting that Cueball has been reading media coverage for quite a while.
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Cueball is so caught up in media coverage that he is speculating on the effect that incumbent President {{w|Barak Obama|Obama}} winning the election (and the resulting news coverage) could have on challenger {{w|Mitt Romney}}'s campaign. The joke is that the end-goal of Romney's campaign is to win the election. If Obama wins, the campaigning is already over, regardless of media coverage. Cueball is simply so invested that he overanalyzes potential scenarios and fails to see the big picture.
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Specifically, he has become so concerned with following the polls that he's lost sight of their purpose as a predictive tool. After the election is over, polling becomes trivial since the result they are intended to forecast is already known (and so in reality will not be conducted at all). This is likely intended as a rebuke to those pundits who seemingly care more about (or whose jobs are contingent on caring more about) the "game" of analyzing and predicting the politics of the race than the actual policies the candidates are likely to pursue after coming into office.
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The title text repeats this theme with {{w|Nate Silver}}, an American statistician, {{w|psephologist}}, and writer (among other things). He has a political blog called {{w|FiveThirtyEight}} which was originally written under a pseudonym. The Blog and its associated website primarily discuss tracking polls in respect to elections. Thus, the choices made on Tuesday (election day) ''will'' have massive and permanent effects on FiveThirtyEight's charts, which will obviously change to reflect the actual votes cast - but all the charts will have become trivial since the purpose of the blog is to predict the results. This is a parody of the bold statements often made during campaigns, such as that the choices made on election day could have massive and permanent effects on such things as your health care, the economy, your job, etc.
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==Transcript==
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:[Cueball kneels on his desk chair, hunched over a laptop]
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:Cueball: This Tuesday will be huge!
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:Cueball: If Obama wins the election, it could generate news coverage ''devastating'' to Romney's position in the tracking polls!
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:Offscreen character: ... Maybe you should take a break.
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{{comic discussion}}
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[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
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[[Category:Politics]]

Revision as of 15:49, 22 February 2013

Poll Watching
The choices we make Tuesday could have MASSIVE and PERMANENT effects on the charts on Nate Silver's blog!
Title text: The choices we make Tuesday could have MASSIVE and PERMANENT effects on the charts on Nate Silver's blog!

Explanation

This is a comic about the 2012 U.S. presidential election, as it was posted the day before the election on November 6, 2012 ("this Tuesday"). It is the third comic on the subject, the previous two being 1122: Electoral Precedent and 1127: Congress.

In the comic, Cueball is glued to his laptop reading media coverage of the election. The offscreen character remarks that Cueball should take a break, suggesting that Cueball has been reading media coverage for quite a while.

Cueball is so caught up in media coverage that he is speculating on the effect that incumbent President Obama winning the election (and the resulting news coverage) could have on challenger Mitt Romney's campaign. The joke is that the end-goal of Romney's campaign is to win the election. If Obama wins, the campaigning is already over, regardless of media coverage. Cueball is simply so invested that he overanalyzes potential scenarios and fails to see the big picture.

Specifically, he has become so concerned with following the polls that he's lost sight of their purpose as a predictive tool. After the election is over, polling becomes trivial since the result they are intended to forecast is already known (and so in reality will not be conducted at all). This is likely intended as a rebuke to those pundits who seemingly care more about (or whose jobs are contingent on caring more about) the "game" of analyzing and predicting the politics of the race than the actual policies the candidates are likely to pursue after coming into office.

The title text repeats this theme with Nate Silver, an American statistician, psephologist, and writer (among other things). He has a political blog called FiveThirtyEight which was originally written under a pseudonym. The Blog and its associated website primarily discuss tracking polls in respect to elections. Thus, the choices made on Tuesday (election day) will have massive and permanent effects on FiveThirtyEight's charts, which will obviously change to reflect the actual votes cast - but all the charts will have become trivial since the purpose of the blog is to predict the results. This is a parody of the bold statements often made during campaigns, such as that the choices made on election day could have massive and permanent effects on such things as your health care, the economy, your job, etc.

Transcript

[Cueball kneels on his desk chair, hunched over a laptop]
Cueball: This Tuesday will be huge!
Cueball: If Obama wins the election, it could generate news coverage devastating to Romney's position in the tracking polls!
Offscreen character: ... Maybe you should take a break.


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Discussion

The "failing to see big picture" probably parodies someone too. -- Hkmaly (talk) 08:49, 7 November 2012 (UTC)

Hope I'm doing this right - anyway, maybe I'm misreading this entry, but I think the whole point of this comic is that he has his cause and effect priorities completely reversed - he's more concerned about how the outcome of the election will affect the tracking polls and that entire process rather than, as with most people, merely using tracking polls to predict the election results. -- Greg

You're quite right, and I'll add a paragraph to that effect. - jerodast (talk) 15:35, 3 December 2012 (UTC)

Ironically, in 2016, the Tuesday results did not actually affect the FiveThirtyEight forecast - it still shows up as 71.4% Clinton today. --172.68.11.39 08:46, 11 November 2016 (UTC)

...Then there was the 2020 US election, rendering this comic more prophetic and disturbing than it should be... 162.158.6.128 00:58, 6 January 2021 (UTC)