Poll: One for, One Against

It’s disappointing to see people I respect attacking one of Orange County’s most regarded pollsters.

Mark Baldassare is a highly competent pollster and trusted advisor. For more than 10 years, Baldassare has tracked opinions here in Orange County and has had the widespread respect of community and business leaders--from both political parties.

He has been retained by organizations like KCAL-TV, the San Francisco Chronicle and the California Business Roundtable. And now he is on sabbatical from UCI as a visiting Scholar at the prestigious Public Policy Institute of California--a research organization founded by the same David Packard that was a GOP stalwart.

We must realize that Baldassare only tracks opinions--he is not responsible for shaping them.

Come on guys, don’t kill the messenger!

LARRY TENNEY

Santa Ana

* When will the liberals in your news department give its readers some credit for some intelligence?

If the headlines claiming that Clinton is gaining strength in Orange County are any indication, the answer probably is never!

Let’s see now, a headline that claims a poll taken by the politically correct, liberal left UC Irvine, written up by your very liberal reporters, and confirmed by liberal professor Mark Baldassare is supposed to be objective. Come on, give us a break!

In the body of the story (“Poll Shows Dole and Clinton in O.C. Dead Heat,” Sept. 19) they actually state that Bob Dole is leading President Clinton by a small margin, “a statistical dead heat” as the story put it. The truth of the matter is that if Clinton is not leading Bob Dole by a wide margin in this so-called poll taken by the politically correct leftist haven, UCI, then Bill Clinton is in real trouble even at UCI!

Furthermore, intelligent voters know that polls have just become a campaign tool for trying to create trends that often don’t really exist. As a matter of fact, it would be very interesting if your paper would run a poll on how many of your readers still believe in these polls.

KENNETH FISHER

Member

GOP Central Committee

Executive Committee, 69th AD

Anaheim