Poll vault

Ed points to a bit of a back and forth over what Liddy’s recent poll number mean.

Here’s a little story ’bout that:

Back in 1998 when Lauch Faircloth was running for re-election, I asked a political consultant, who had been a key player in Bill Clinton’s southern strategy in 1992, what he thought of the race. If I recall the timing, John Edwards was just getting into it and a lot of people thought he was going to just blow a ton of money on a vanity run.

The consultant told me that Faircloth was going to get his clock cleaned. The key number for him was name recognition — or, rather the lack of it. Faircloth was only around 43 points.

I’d have to agree that a 46 percent favorable is not good for an incumbent, but I’d really like to know how many people are even aware she’s our Senator. Pundits are by nature a little bubble-bound and political operatives even more so.

Wonder what Senator Jack Murphy‘s numbers would be like?