Gwen Ifill: 'Last Person to Actually Get Elected President to Win a Straw Poll Was George W. Bush'

August 14th, 2011 3:59 PM

After Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's win in Saturday's Iowa Straw Poll, the Obama-loving media have been working overtime to make darned certain the public doesn't think this has any significance.

Doing her part was PBS's Gwen Ifill who said on Sunday's "Face the Nation," "The last person to actually get elected president to win a Straw Poll was George W. Bush" - as if that was soooo long ago (video follows with transcript and commentary):

GWEN IFILL, PBS: Because no matter what you think about the Straw Poll and whether it was predictive, and no matter what you think about the caucuses and whether they’re predictive, it should be pointed out that the last person to actually get elected president to win a straw poll was George W. Bush. So, it’s not necessarily predicting the next president.

Well, let's do some math, shall we?

Bush won the Iowa Straw Poll twelve years ago on August 14, 1999. Since he didn't have any Republican challengers to his reelection, there wasn't a Poll in 2003.

That means there's only be two since then including Saturday's, and who knows whether this outcome will be predictive of anything.

As such, Ifill's point was silly because there's only been one Poll with an associated presidential election since Bush first won the White House in November 2000.

Clearly, the point she likely was trying to make was that the only person to win this Poll and become president was Bush.

Readers might think I'm splitting hairs here, but given the consummate accuracy media members demand of conservatives - especially women like Bachmann! - we should be able to demand the same from them.