1995, at the urging of Clinton, he instituted the ‘mother of all polls’, using a 259
question-long telephone questionnaire which had to be divided into five parts since no
one would willingly stay on the phone for the hours it would take to answer every
question (D. Morris 1999). Famously Morris used polling data to send the president
on a cowboy vacation in Wyoming rather than having him indulge in his and Hillary’s
preferred vacation on Martha’s Vineyard (Klein 2006).
44 One should not go too far: anxiety levels have historically risen and fallen in populations
and, in any case, as G.E. Marcus (2002) has argued, anxiety can play a vital and rational
role in the political process, serving to promote vigilance as well as servility. The danger
is that too many commentators make general statements based on very specific historical
circumstances.
4 5 For example, most recently Gordon Brown has reportedly been being advised by
Bob Shrum while Howard Dean is advising the Labour Party more generally on how
to conduct viral politics.
4 6 Such as multiculturalism.
47 For example, Cruz (2005) points to the growth of pathos, compassion and
commiseration – what he collectively calls ‘ethnosympathy’ – at the turn of the century
as providing a valuable resource in ethnic struggles.
4 8 MoveOn produced the highly effective meeting tool which made it possible to produce
instant anti-war vigils and was also key in developing support for the Howard Dean
campaign.
4 9 And indeed one of the most interesting outcomes of these developments is the attempt
to map them (see Abrams and Hall 2006).
278 Notes