Inside the Beltway: Trump bypasses media, creates his own polls

NEWS AND OPINION:

Donald Trump appears intent on bypassing the news media, the major pollsters and the chokehold they have on popular opinion. In a distinctly insurgent-style maneuver, the Republican presidential nominee has launched his own outreach to voters: Trump polls.

Two of these bold new surveys, each asking 30 questions, were blasted out by email to voters on Monday — one focused on actual campaign strategy, the other on the press. The effort was organized by Team Trump, a joint organization composed of Donald J. Trump for President and the Republican National Committee.

“Without you, this campaign would be nothing,” the campaign poll states. “Now we face the fight of our lifetime. We The people are going up against Hillary Clinton’s monstrous machine of elites, lobbyists, and special interests. To win this fight, Trump is turning to his most trusted advisers: the American people.”

The survey focuses on the Trump campaign itself, asking if Mr. Trump should focus on positive or negative advertising. It poses questions about the state of exaggerated political correctness and whether President Obama has abused the “powers of the presidency.” Another 27 questions follow.

The media survey goes to the heart of the matter, asking voters to identify which news organizations they trust and to weigh in on myriad questions about media misconduct, “fake scandals,” liberal bias and unfair characterizations of “people of faith” and the tea party.

“All too often I’m asked about a ’poll’ put out by a liberal organization that says the American people disagree with our common-sense reforms to fix our country,” Mr. Trump noted in the poll introduction. “The next time I’m being interviewed, I will have my own poll that shows that the American people disagree with the dishonest media.”

And now the most telling question: Once the results are tallied for the Trump polls, will news organizations share the results — or ignore them?

THE CLINTON TACTICS EXPLAINED

Americans struggle to follow the presidential election amid the distractions, sideshows and precisely calibrated media manipulation from the Democratic side of combat. One analyst explains the inner workings.

“Hillary Clinton has never won an honest election. And she isn’t about to start trying to win one now. Her favorite kind of race is rigged. Deeply unpopular and deemed untrustworthy by huge numbers of voters, she plans to win by panicking Republicans into abandoning Trump to ’save’ themselves,” writes Daniel Greenfield, a columnist for Front Page Magazine.

“Hillary is an insider and her weapon of choice is the media. The weapon has a limited impact on the average Republican voter, but has a great deal of impact on the establishment Republicans who are her targets. Their weaknesses are position and respectability. From the very beginning some establishment Republicans preferred to see Hillary win to maintain the status quo,” Mr. Greenfield continues.

“She set a media trap using the fears and doubts of GOP elites against them. To win, all she has to do is to convince them of what they already believe, that the party is doomed and that they have one last opportunity to cut and run,” he observes. “Hillary Clinton doesn’t believe she can win a fair election. The game has been rigged in all the familiar ways, from media bias to voter fraud, but only Republican defeatism can hand her the White House.”

THE TRUMP AND HANNITY SHOW

Donald Trump is off to Wisconsin on Tuesday to visit a bustling county fair, like a candidate should. But he also is to appear at a significant broadcast event in Milwaukee, where he will meet up with Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity for an exclusive one-hour town hall at the historic Pabst Theater with a live audience, to air at 10 p.m. EST.

The focus, Mr. Hannity says, “will be on ISIS and radical Islam.”

CHARTING AN UNSETTLING METAMORPHOSIS

Just out from Regnery Publishing: “Upside Down: How the Left Turned Right into Wrong, Truth into Lies, and Good into Bad” by Mark Davis, a talk radio host who cites progressive culture for claiming that fossil fuels are bad, illegal immigration is necessary for the economy and Christians are intolerant.

“The dogma preached by the far left has gone mainstream and the results are frightening. Most of what you hear these days is flat-out wrong. Millions of Americans don’t even recognize the country they grew up in. We can’t even debate each other anymore. The shared assumptions that make a meaningful argument possible — about right and wrong, good and bad — are gone. The world is upside down. And it all seemed to happen in the blink of an eye,” writes Mr. Davis.

He’s getting accolades from his fellow radio hosts Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, Dennis Prager and William Bennett, among others.

“The Obama years have taken a heavy toll on America’s economy, security, and culture. But the most dangerous blow has been to our national spirit. If we are to save our country, we must believe that it can be done. And it can be done, if we begin by seeing it right side up,” Mr. Davis observes.

THE POLLS IN QUESTION

The Commission on Presidential Debates has revealed which national polls will be used to determine who gets to participate in sanctioned presidential and vice presidential debates, which begin in 40 days. All have strong broadcast connections. The five polls are: ABC-Washington Post, CBS-New York Times, CNN-Opinion Research Corp., Fox News and NBC-Wall Street Journal.

Frank Newport, editor in chief of Gallup and chief adviser in the decision, cited the five winners for their reliability, survey methodology and “longevity and reputation” as a polling organization.

POLL DU JOUR

• 60 percent of U.S. companies expect increased pressure from stakeholders to take a stand on social issues like discrimination and human rights in the next three years.

• 45 percent say that pressure already has increased.

• 40 percent say the pressure to become involved remains the same.

• 25 percent expect no significant change in their social issue involvement.

• 14 percent expect pressure to engage in social issues will increase significantly.

Source: A Public Affairs Council survey of 92 private and publicly traded U.S. companies conducted through June and July and released Monday.

• Petty annoyances, big deals to jharper@washingtontimes.com