Jon Ralston on polls and an idea for our mayor on the less fortunate

Friday, June 23, 2006 | 7:18 a.m.

Some poll numbers and some mayoral pathology:

The numbers, obtained from 591 likely voters who agreed to be part of online surveys, have an error margin of 4.1 percentage points. They are hardly revelatory, and the results may not mean more or less than any poll taken now, especially with so many questions about what the turnout will be. Twenty percent? Maybe. Thirty percent? Could be. Forty percent? Doubtful.

The poll showed Rep. Jim Gibbons defeating either Democratic nominee by about 8 percentage points, although no one has really focused on the general election matchup yet - not to mention that lack of attention to the primary matchup. In fact, Gibbons' lead has been virtually unchanged from what it was last September in these polls over Dina Titus and Jim Gibson.

Some of the numbers in the poll don't make much intuitive sense - such as Gibson, who has been on TV for three weeks, being in a dead heat with Bob Beers, whom he was beating by 5 percentage points a few months ago. Then again, maybe the TASC publicity boosted Beers. Or maybe, as I have said before, the poll is wrong.

(The poll also found that U.S. Sen. John Ensign continues to crush Jack Carter. He was beating Carter by 15 points in September and still has that margin this month. Then again, maybe most of the people responding to these Zogby polls are unmovable in their views and that's why the numbers don't change that much.)

The Nixon / Queeg side of the city's amiable inebriate always comes out. He simply cannot control it. There were several disturbing moments, such as when Goodman said the homeless "should get cleaned up and get a job. I got a job." But here was the strangest rant of all during the City Council meeting Wednesday, with finger-pointing and a raised voice bizarre to behold and hear:

"Where I take offense is with those who choose that lifestyle to the detriment of the neighborhoods who don't have the physical problems, who don't have the mental problems, who choose to live that life of non-responsibility and choose to defecate and urinate in people's yards and ruin their quality of life. I have no tolerance for those kinds of people.

"Those are the kind of people I'd like to see shipped out of here, to be quite frank with you. (Audience members clap enthusiastically.)

"But the reason we are unable to accomplish this - and there will be some very smug members who will criticize us tomorrow morning for even trying to get an answer because those folks who write about this, they never give a solution, they just like to criticize, they never do anything constructive ... they give the support to the enablers instead of getting solutions to the problems."

So let me distill: There are lots of homeless people out there who really like the lifestyle of being outside in 100-plus heat, using the great outdoors as a bathroom, and the reason the ever-helpful, socially progressive mayor can't accomplish anything is that the media just criticizes and (unlike him) is not constructive.

I must prove the mayor wrong right here. I have a very constructive solution to change the tone of the city's treatment of the homeless and perhaps get something done, outside of the contumely and obloquy hurled from the dais:

How about a new mayor come next year? Now that would be constructive.