Luntz admits he tries to convince focus group attendees to oppose health care reform.
Luntz admits he tries to convince focus group attendees to oppose health care reform.
In May, pollster Frank Luntz presented a memo to congressional Republicans, laying out a strategy for opposing health care reform. Since then, the GOP has closely followed his script. Appearing on Fox News today, Luntz claimed that his recent focus groups have shown how “angry” Americans are about President Obama’s push for health care reform. But Luntz also admitted that he tries to convince people at his focus groups to be more scared of government than insurance companies:
LUNTZ: They were more angry and more fearful of government than insurance companies, but not by much. And what I’m saying to people who are nervous about this health care, as I listen to the give and take, is if you don’t like the insurance companies — and most people don’t — then do you really want to add an extra layer of bureaucracy and an extra level of bureaucrats and yet another set of people who can say no to you.
Watch it:
During his Fox appearance, Luntz never mentioned that he also provides strategic advice to various health insurance companies.
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Luntz IS a walking, talking conflict of interest.
August 17th, 2009 at 8:12 pmyea… and the liars and paranoid idiots won another contest…
W.H. Pulls Plug on E-Mail Asking For “Fishy” Reports
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/08/17/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5247317.shtml
August 17th, 2009 at 8:19 pmThere, he said it: ALMOST NO ONE LIKES INSURANCE COMPANIES, except CEOs and boards of insurance companies. Yet they run the country, de facto. Elections don’t matter, town halls don’t matter. They win either way.
Frank Luntz should be taken out and horse-whipped. It would be less of a punishment than those who don’t have health insurance.
August 17th, 2009 at 8:25 pmWhen will these conservatives concede that the government is running several healthcare services that are working efficiently and economically in Medicare and Veterans Health Services? If these programs are socialist, why then would the opponents of healthcare reform work for their repeal?
August 17th, 2009 at 8:27 pmThe health insurance industry with their allies of Republicans, right wingers, and Wall Street will never negotiate nor give up anything for the sake of bipartisanship nor for the good of the country. It is not true that the American people prefer health care run by profit motivated corporations over that of government guided or administered health care.
Can we get Luntz into a dress and a Pelosi wig and then put him in a room with NotJoetheNotPlumber and his size 12s?
PEACE
August 17th, 2009 at 8:41 pmI hate when these ratbasturds say what most Americans do or don’t want! They have no clue. We need some town hall meetings in towns and cities where most of us who do want a public option can be seen and heard.
August 17th, 2009 at 8:47 pmLuntz needs a new hairpiece.
The little repiggie should hire some gay guys to “do” him, as in a total makeover.
He looks like the typical sweaty fat white guy the repiggies seem to attract.
August 17th, 2009 at 8:52 pmThis steamy pant load will burn in hell for the damage he has done to this country. He is a traitor to the United States of America.
August 17th, 2009 at 8:54 pmSo . . . he asks these people if they want to continue paying MORE and MORE for LESS and LESS health care?
August 17th, 2009 at 8:59 pmThis is what the right wing want:
Abolish Medicare
Abolish Medicaid
Abolish Unions
Abolish unemployment insurance
Abolish food stamps
Abolish Social Security
Abolish job programs
Abolish housing, banking, highway, farm, corporate, any regulation. Dick Armey provided the “Christian nationalism”, “biblical capitalism” answer yesterday on MTP. This crew has been working for years; this secular society has to come to an end. This is like a perfect storm for them: 2 years of an election campaign planting doubt about the non-WASP, the “other”, he’s a Muslim, he’s not a citizen, 8 years of perfecting the “fear” WMD’s lingo and the American people are responding like Palovian dogs. Dickey and the right wing religious, including the alliance made with the Catholic Church, and the Republican think tanks are in their glory. They want NO social programs. They have theirs, and yours and that the way it is supposed to be. God has ordained it. And it is not the God of hope, love and charity. It is the God who pre-ordained that they were “the chosen”; they should lead, to hell with the rest of us. And they did it all “tax exempt” as 501(3) (c)’s… Wake-up–look it up.
August 17th, 2009 at 9:03 pmIt makes me angry to see how the right’s propaganda spin machine works. Everything is focus group tested and then handed a catchy title or slogan.
Then it is shipped off the the astro-turf Tea Party Movement to be used as the talking points.
How can these people get away with this fraud, it is well documented that the Tea Party Movement is in fact a well financed, corporate sponsored hoax?
When is someone in the media going to call out Eric Odom and expose his nefarious corporate/lobby spin machine?
August 17th, 2009 at 9:05 pmI can’t be the only one who was keeping an eye on Odom’s internet media empire.
I am surprise Olbermann has been silent about Odom, since Odom once owned the stalker blog Olbermann Watch.
In May, pollster Frank Luntz presented a memo to congressional Republicans …
so, how did we miss the memo from team obama to congressional democrats
and american citizens…?
oh, there wasn’t one??? really…
…
… i knew this would happen…
i can’t believe i’m worried about what i’m worried about…
please don’t cave in to the greedy and/or ignorant LIARS.
August 17th, 2009 at 9:05 pmLuntz said the pharmaceutical companies already sold out
to the Obama Administration.
Is that Fox-speak for cooperation?
August 17th, 2009 at 9:11 pmDon’t worry anyone…
our right to be screwed by rich guys
shall never be abridged.
Thanks to Frank Luntz, and the hateful mouthbreathers who gobble up his bullsh*t.
August 17th, 2009 at 9:15 pmAction Alert
Keep the Public Option for Health Care
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/issues/alert/?alertid=13895206&type=ML
August 17th, 2009 at 9:22 pm@ # 3, Uosdwis, I cannot amen that enough.
Way too few people, political stripe notwithstanding, fail to assign enough responsibility for the status quo to insurance companies. (but way more righties miss that point than lefties)
They are “smiley face fascism” incarnate.
There may come to be a one-world totalitartian government someday, but it will not be of The Left or of The Right, it will be of The Insurance Company.
August 17th, 2009 at 9:36 pmTrust me when I say that no one in the political community takes Luntz seriously anymore.
Either way he is strictly a Republican pollster, not some unbiased Gallup suit…
http://www.political-buzz.com/
August 17th, 2009 at 9:48 pmToo scarey, tombaker.
August 17th, 2009 at 9:48 pmBecause the healthcare corporations and the corporate private prisons are dependant on each other.
It’s O/T, but worth posting…
I’m sure TP will have a thread about this later…
Un-F’in real…
Can you IMAGINE the uproar if any Librul had DARED show up w/in miles of a Bush speaking event packing like THIS a**hat did?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/17/man-carrying-semi-automat_n_261279.html
A man was spotted Monday afternoon carrying a semi-automatic assault rifle and a pistol at a pro-health care reform rally next to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Arizona where President Obama was speaking.
The local paper The Arizona Republic reported:
A man, who decided not to give his name, was walking around the pro-health care reform rally at 3rd and Washington streets, with a pistol on his hip, and an AR-15 (a semi-automatic assault rifle) on a strap over his shoulder.
“Because I can do it,” he said when asked why he was armed. “In Arizona, I still have some freedoms.”
Two police officers were staying very close to the man.
______________
What the F*** is WRONG w/ these people?
“I still have some freedoms…”
What an astonishing moron… it’s only a matter of time before one of these hate clowns snaps and shoots a half dozen people at one of these events.
I guess shooting people you disagree w/ is well on its way to being “protected free speech”…
August 17th, 2009 at 9:50 pmWhy do so many little dicked losers like big guns. F uckin’ pussies…
August 17th, 2009 at 9:57 pmDon’t let the corporation win this one.
Don’t let the corporate shill win this argument.
The power over people that the corporation now has is stifling. We have seen that this must change.
Elimination of corporate monopoly is the humane thing to do – sorry corporations, but don’t worry, you’ll get over it.
August 17th, 2009 at 9:58 pmokie – they do more than that. they share board members.
but dummies are still more scared of people who work for puny wages and a pension because they want to be helpful to the world they live in, rather than rape it for money like a psycho.
August 17th, 2009 at 10:01 pmFrank Luntz has been worth every nickel the Republican’s paid him. His strategy has worked fore them. Isn’t it something that he can just teach these people to be mean and ornery.I think it’s interesting that he is also consulting the insurance companies.What a playbook he wrote.I hope everyone realizes how to deal with Republicans. Do what Frank says,attack,attack, and then attack.
August 17th, 2009 at 10:03 pmdbadass says:
Why do so many little dicked losers like big guns. F uckin’ pussies…
___________
You answered your own question…
August 17th, 2009 at 10:06 pmThat’s a question that you should ask Trajan from Troll Central. He is always blogging about his big guns, his dick is so small that guns alone are not enough.
August 17th, 2009 at 10:10 pmTwajie has two Akita dogs which he warned me have been trained to kill.
“Twajie has two Akita dogs which he warned me have been trained to kill.”
Yeah, but killing small rodents isn’t much to brag about.
August 17th, 2009 at 10:17 pmTwajie? Is there a smaller dick that is still a dick?
August 17th, 2009 at 10:24 pmPresident Clinton, at NetRoots, summed up the challenge perfectly, as usual, with this little nugget of wisdom.
“There is nothing so difficult in all human affairs as to change the established order of things….. Because those who have it are certain of what they will lose, and those who will gain are uncertain of their advance.” – President Bill Clinton – NetRoots
August 17th, 2009 at 10:27 pmThe Republic of Stupidity says:
..quoting some AR-15 toting as’hat “I still have some freedoms…”
I value my freedoms. I expect to be able to speak my mind, worship as I please, and own weapons that I could use to defend my home. I cannot imagine a scenario where I would find it necessary to carry this type of gun in public. Even if it’s legal, I wouldn’t want to distract the nice Secret Service officers by forcing them to spend time watching me. Whatever could this man be thinking?
August 17th, 2009 at 10:27 pmLuntz is a parasite.
August 17th, 2009 at 10:29 pmHe is a prostitute for the highest payer.
He doesn’t give two hoots about people, he works for the right wingers, for the insurance companies, for the vulchers of society who make their obscene profits on people who are sick and needy.
I don’t know how he sleeps at night – it must take some powerful sleeping drugs. Then again, people like him don’t have a conscience, so nothing will nag at him when he closes his eyes.
People like him and so many others who have demonstrated their true nature over the past months are proof to me that there is no god – if there were a spirit in the sky watching over us, the lowlifes would have been turned to stone or pillars of salt long ago.
Mayor: “Is this true?
Dr. Peter Venkman: “Yes, it’s true.”
August 17th, 2009 at 10:36 pm“This man has no dick.”
I know, tombaker @ 22
And both of these corporations or their executives contribute generously to politian’s campaigns to ensure government subsidies to build these prisons.
Plus the $35,000 or more dollars we pay the prison for housing mostly drug related offenses.
Our tax dollars at work.
August 17th, 2009 at 10:38 pmThe Republic of Stupidity
Remember when no one could get near a Bush gathering if he wasn’t pre-screened – including driving a car, parked two blocks away that had an anti-war bumper sticker.
Friendly audiences only were allowed – protestors were kept blocks away behind chain link fences.
I don’t advocate that treatment of protestors, but there is something twisted and dangerous when some people feel the need to strut about a crowd wearing a firearm or carring an assault weapon – I fear for the safety of bystanders, and for the president.
August 17th, 2009 at 10:40 pmFrom Health Care for America Now!
Nothing Intimidates Health Insurers Like the Public Health Insurance Plan
just a snippet from an article by Monica Sanchez….
Insurance companies are clearly not intimidated by state regulators. These companies seem to consider the fines they incur just the cost of doing business. How much money must they be saving by breaking prompt payment laws if they are willing to keep violating the law over and over again?
Regulation doesn’t intimidate health insurers because they know they can get around it, or that, if they get caught, what they earn violating the regulations will more than make up for what they get fined. In fact, health insurers have called for more federal regulation as part of health reform. Does that mean insurers want to reform their ways? Don’t be fooled. (More Regulation, more loopholes)
What insurance companies want is to stave off the one thing that truly intimidates them: having to compete on a level playing field against a public health insurance plan. Knowing that we will have the ability to walk away from the private insurance industry altogether if they keep abusing our trust is what frightens them, and what might just scare them straight in the future.
Unfortunately, the insurance companies seem to be swaying the Senate. Despite poll after poll after poll showing a vast majority of their constituents want the choice of a public health insurance plan, some Senators are caving in to the insurance lobby.
August 17th, 2009 at 10:40 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
“Luntz claimed that his recent focus groups have shown how “angry” Americans are about President Obama’s…”
Angry about the color of Obama’s skin. Stupid racist chumps, and proud of it.
August 17th, 2009 at 10:50 pmWhy do CEOs get 100 million dollar bonuses? because they WIN. and anyone who thinks that “oh this time, this time, we will win and the genius corporations that spend million outthinking us are just going to drop the ball.” not going to happen.
Whatever Bill passes it was surely make companies richer. Hopefully if we make them a good enough deal we can eek out a few more health people, but thats pie in the sky.
Winning verses these companies is like throwing a rock to mars. Suffer no delusions.
August 17th, 2009 at 10:55 pmBlue53: Yes, I suspect pre-revolution France was perfect in the conservative opinion, assuming they would have been the aristocrats, and not the serfs.
People (including Me) compare the Republicans & Mightie Tightie Righties to Fascists pretty often, but sometimes I am more vividly reminded of the (untrue of Marie A.) “Let them eat Cake” doctrine.
August 17th, 2009 at 10:58 pmMy post at # 13 is receiving some votes down.
Did I miss something last week?
August 17th, 2009 at 10:59 pmSomebody enlighten me, please.
I pay over 20% of my income on prescriptions for my family.
Are they just the usual “Fox” troll droppings?
So there ARE people out there supporting the drug industry. Why do Americans think all their problem can be solved with drugs? Too bad there isn’t a drug that grows out of the ground and cures fear and conservatism. oh wait there is…
August 17th, 2009 at 11:04 pmI have a grown child with Type one insulin-dependant diabetes.
August 17th, 2009 at 11:10 pmSo supporting the pharmaceutical companies is not really a choice.
oh wait I know why. Because doctors get kick-backs every time they say some kid has too much energy. Every time they ignore coffee as a reason people stay awake all night. Every time they give a mercury-filled flu-shot to a toddler. Every time they say you’re depressed.
Insurance companies make a killing curing.
August 17th, 2009 at 11:11 pmI’m sorry. I hope we get some stem cell money from Obama and cure that up.
August 17th, 2009 at 11:17 pmAaronQ of Maine @43
There probably already is a cure.
But, there’s no money in that for the pharmaceutical companies, is there?
August 17th, 2009 at 11:22 pmYou guys already know the answer – the disease is the profits, and the profits require maintenance, not cures.
I mean, look what happened to the iron lung manufacturers after the Polio vaccine was distributed for free to every man, woman and child in the United States (regardless of immigrant status, I might add) If only those who made and sold iron lungs, crutches, leg braces, etc. had had lobbyists and congress critters willing to sell out the health of a nation for a little scratch…
PEACE
August 17th, 2009 at 11:29 pmCan you imagine the dust-up if well-armed progressives showed up at Bush/Cheney events?
They would have been shot on sight by the Secret Service.
Why is there always a different set of rules for the repiggies?
August 17th, 2009 at 11:36 pmbecause the wingnuts would cry victim and moan that the Secret Service has a liberal bias…/snark
August 17th, 2009 at 11:42 pmthose gun totin’ idjits are incredibly inconsiderate and selfish…
and stoopid.
they thought they could provoke getting themselves thrown out
and their weapons confiscated so they could start a confrontation…
nothing happened, except news exposure… probably the worst thing…
so more will come and test the waters… it’s sure getting deep…
the double standard and hypocrisy are outrageous too…
rachel maddow had a good conversation with a secret service guy tonight… he thinks it’s time to end the shows…
me too.
August 18th, 2009 at 12:34 am.
I WANT TO KNOW WHY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS THINK AMERICANS DON’T DESERVE AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE!
.
August 18th, 2009 at 12:48 am.
Dear Frank Lutz,
Why do you think Americans don’t deserve affordable health care?
If by bureaucracy you mean pencil pushers and bean counters sitting in cubicles in some far off place making decisions IF I’ll be receiving life saving treatments, I say…
… THE STATUS QUO ALREADY HAS THIS BUILT IN!
.
August 18th, 2009 at 12:51 am…and that the government of the insurance companies, by the insurance companies and for the insurance companies, shall not perish from the earth.
– Republicans
August 18th, 2009 at 12:58 am– Yellow-bellied Democrats
– Faux Noise
– CNN
– birthers, deathers, sreamers and teabaggers.
Sorry, O.T. – sort of…
Darcy Burner’s Netroots Nation keynote:
‘We have to make our leaders do the right thing’
By David Neiwert Monday Aug 17, 2009
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/darcy-burners-netroots-nation-keynot
.
August 18th, 2009 at 1:36 am“…the people have so many questions that aren’t getting answered…”
Well, it is a little hard to hear the answers to the questions when you are being shouted down in a town hall meeting… or you don’t believe the answers you are given or only get half-truths and lies from Faux news.
August 18th, 2009 at 2:26 amblue53@ 10 — very well said! You only forgot one final thing… the right wing want to destroy the middle class as well…
August 18th, 2009 at 2:31 amWTF?
Who is this guy talking to?
The pharmaceuticals completely bought into the Obama plan?
Is he actually saying that we should be incensed that drug costs may go down?
What the hell world are these numbnuts living in?
August 18th, 2009 at 2:40 amFrom his company site under the heading ‘what we do’
‘we help clients take control of the issues that matter by redefining them.’
Nice. I’ve had it with these scumbags..
August 18th, 2009 at 5:36 amWhatizz said:
‘What a playbook he(Luntz) wrote.I hope everyone realizes how to deal with Republicans. Do what Frank says,attack,attack, and then attack.’
Actually… in a sense – yes, but we have always had higher standards than them. A strategy of misinformation and fear will only bite you in the ass, the Republican party is weaker than they’ve ever been because of this. They’re desperate lately and using the only play IN their playbook.. just dirtier. Truth always wins folks.. but yes.. ATTACK, ATTACK, ATTACK them with it – more than ever.
August 18th, 2009 at 5:50 amThis guys “pollS” and “focus groups” have been scripted for years. He is a paid employee and gets all the airtime they want him to have.
August 18th, 2009 at 5:52 amThe insurance industry would love to have the gov be blamed for their deceit. Even these attempts to combine gov and insurance in the same sentence is a giant distraction.
But the cons best tool is fear.They play fear of the unknown to the extreme.
Don’t get distracted. It’s all about money.
The entire insurance industry is set up to not pay money.That is always their game plan.
a last somewhat O/T comment for you… or at least it appears off topic..
while wandering the internet.. I wound up re-reading the poem ’second coming’ by william butler yeats..http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/289.html
a truly great little poem.. this line in particular reminds me of the world today..
‘The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.’
not to be a doomsayer folks.. but strange things are afoot at the circle k.. (movie reference) – I, like many of you, am concerned about the recent militant displays by the right.. things seem to be taking an unsettling turn.
August 18th, 2009 at 7:16 amHilarious that these wimpy little gun-toting right wing pansies think they can intimidate liberals.
Right wingers that are so insecure that they need to display their firearms to compensate for their feelings of inadequacy are silly to believe that those of use that have concealed permits and don’t need to advertise it won’t use ours if the fecal matter strikes the oscillating air manipulation device.
We survived Gee Dubya. We can survive these little pansies.
August 18th, 2009 at 8:30 amThis is such a farce! The Repugs just duped a couple British women who thought they were going to be in a ‘Documentary’ then put them in a ‘Anti Health Care Ad’ These guys have no scruples. Both the Canadians and the British are getting pissed off at us for slamming their Health Care systems, and the sad fact is, their systems are much better.
August 18th, 2009 at 8:33 amSen. Grassley made an insensitive comment about Sen. Kennedy and the British National Health System. He claimed ” I’VE BEEN TOLD that the brain tumor that Sen. Kennedy has — because
he’s 77 years old — would not be treated the way it’s treated in the United States…”
“Sen. Edward Kennedy wouldn’t have received state-of-the-art care for his brain tumor in a place like Great Britain because health overseers would have found extending the life of the 77-year-old unworthy of the expense.
NPR’s Morning Edition provided proof that either Grassley has been Misinformed…or is just Lying…..
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2009/08/britains_health_service_defend.html
“Well, I’m sorry to say that’s the most ludicrous thing that I’ve heard,” (said) Ara Darzi, a surgeon and former minister of health. It’s an example, Darzi says, of the “lies that have been used to set fear against reform.”
August 18th, 2009 at 9:07 amTold? He didnt do any personal research before making this claim. Whoa.
August 18th, 2009 at 9:24 amLuntz, that framing crap is okay for Nike commercials, making a crummy shoe made in God knows where, but its not cool to use that language twisting for emotional persuasion when it comes to social issues.
I think what Luntz does is quite close to subliminal messaging which is a form of propaganda.
August 18th, 2009 at 9:27 amDont go away mad Frank, just go away, and dont forget to take your soft brain soap with you.
August 18th, 2009 at 9:32 amLuntz’s question is obviously leading. It has an affect on the poll results.
It highlights a problem with most polls. It would be almost impossible to ensure that bias of the pollster (and the questions they choose to ask) is taken out of the poll.
In the end, it comes down to credibility. Questions like this obviously tarnish Luntz.
August 18th, 2009 at 10:37 amHow about the bus loads of organized Acorn do-nothings that are showing up at the town hall meetings.
August 18th, 2009 at 6:00 pm