William,

I thought you would like that one.

You thought wrong.

You didn't have much to say about polls except that they are all the same, and I gave my reaction to that notion. I liked that part.

How about that Frank Luntz focus group immediately after the first debate where the big news of the evening was the collapse of Donald Trump?

Luntz's big news? I will look back in the thread for earlier discussion and links. Is this part of the coverage you remember? If not. fork up The Words and I will see if I can make an intelligent comment.

I don't know what I think about focus groups -- as opposed to polls. The main benefit is that the people are real, embodied folks in a relatively-open setting, structured and monitored like ICU patients. The people seem to be expressing their own views, but how can one possibly assess their representativeness? I guess the best part is to explore 'memes' in the mind of the particular cohort.

Off the top of my head, I wonder about how the Luntz cohorts are selected and screened, and just what the extracted messages are supposed to have been. You say the main extraction was Trump Slump in one of these ICU events. I don't know.

Here is another Luntz excerpt. Maybe this one is which you mean?

Source: Donald Trump