An Open Letter and a Response

After hosting a GOP debate, CNBC thought it would be a good idea to put up an online poll to see how viewers responded. It didn't take them long to decide that their unscientific, online poll was resulting in an unscientific, unfavorable result and to take the poll down. You can follow the link below to read the letter by CNBC's Managing Editor, Allen Wastler explaining why they decided to remove the poll and his opinion on the matter:

An Open Letter to the Ron Paul Faithful

There was a very well-written response to Mr. Wastler's letter by Michael van der Galien of The Van Der Galien Gazette (my apologies to Mr. van der Galien for the absence of the required umlaut in his name, but I have no idea how to make that happen here):

CNBC to Ron Paul Supporters: Knock. It. Off.

However, I felt that a "letter" posted in a comment to Mr. van der Galien's response was intelligent and concise (I am printing it in it's entirety here as it is impossible for me to link to a specific comment):

Dear Allen,

I’m sure you’re getting plenty of emails attacking your character and judgment after your latest admission of tampering with the polls due to activism that favored Ron Paul. I apologize for my fellow Americans who have foolishly clung to the oddball notion that politics is a participatory process and that by getting active and supporting their candidate, they are exercising the democratic imperative. As we both know, real election-day polling doesn’t rely on the activism of a voting base. I, like everyone else, am required to hand over my voters’ registration card to Zogby and wait for my phone call.

As a Ron Paul supporter, it’s embarrassing to see my fellow Americans taking steps to organize themselves in order to make a good showing in these online polls for their candidate, when it’s clear that the voting bases of these other, more popular candidates are not willing to match the efforts with the same kind of activist enthusiasm. As the saying goes: the nail that sticks out gets hammered down. America is truly being serviced by your hammer.

In Sincere Apology,
(me)

*Note: The "(me)" above is not me, it's some other me.