Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I apologize for the misperception we gave in this past week’s StartupNation Newsletter. The subject headline “OBAMA BEATS MCCAIN” reflected the voting that had taken place on our website up to that point when we created and sent the newsletter on Thursday October 16. Community members had been voting in this poll since September 21 and the percentage lead of 53% to 47% in favor of Obama had been consistent for those 25 days.

We were taken by surprise when the voting results shifted strongly in McCain’s favor once the newsletter featuring this result was sent on Thursday October 16. A mistake by our newsletter delivery provider compounded the issue as only 1/3 of the newsletters actually went out on Thursday. The other 2/3 were delayed until Friday and by that time McCain had taken the lead in the polling!

StartupNation in no way is promoting one candidate over the other and has not endorsed either candidate for President. We are highly interested in creating dialogue and bringing value through that dialogue on all things that impact small business in America. The hotly contested presidential race has brought the issues of small businesses to the forefront during the debates and on the campaign trail for both candidates. In fact, the poll was originally created and posted by one of the StartupNation community members, not by us.

I guess we can now join the ranks of the famous headline “DEWEY BEATS TRUMAN” published by The Chicago Tribune on November 3, 1948.

We made a mistake in judgment or at least in the wording of the headline and newsletter content. The greatness of entrepreneurs is the ability to react swiftly to customer reaction, to own up to errors and then to always be on the lookout for ways to capitalize on each day’s opportunities. We hope to model that strategy in this case.

To be clear, as of this moment, Monday October 20 at 11:10am ET, the StartupNation poll shows that McCain leads Obama by a vote of 338 to 302, or a percentage lead of 52.81% to 47.19%. We’ll keep the polls open until after the election.

View the current poll totals and read/join the lively discussion.

hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Journalism, by nature, is not difficult. It really isn't. Most of the key attributes for solid reporting and editing come naturally to most people; fairness, hard work, and -- most important -- common sense.

News judgment, for instance, consists mostly of editors and producers using common sense to determine, based on the limited resources at hand, which breaking events and stories should be covered, and which ones can be set aside as less important.

During the slow summer months of a presidential campaign, that judgment and that common sense is usually even easier to put into practice because, traditionally, so little happens on the campaign trail with the candidates that what ought to be covered becomes self-evident.

Yet the Beltway press corps has become so borderline dysfunctional that even the simplest tasks, such as selecting which stories to cover -- such as using common sense -- now escape most of the major players at the mainstream news organizations.

Ohh...This is really great :)

Hmm...  a sudden shift on the results.... hmm were have I seen this before... ohh yeah...

well, this free essay sample has inspired me like so much, i thought it might not be possible, but here we are