Give us YOUR opinion dammit

I don't normally go in for this kind of thing, but I found this online poll of Sara Palin's speech to be interesting. First, CNN asked their pundits to rank the speech. They all gave it an A (except Paul Begala, who gave it a B). Then they asked readers to rank the speech and it gets a C.

Forget about that latter stuff. Online polls are crap. What I found interesting was that Roland Martin, who soundly criticized Palin for mocking community organizers, also gave the speech an A.

So what's going on here? Why would he give a speech that he didn't like an A grade? I think it is because media people feel it necessary to give ratings not based on their own reactions but based insteadn on how they think OTHERS will react to it. So, while he may not have liked the speech's content, Martin thinks that it will be well received and therefore he gives it an A.

Opinionators are supposed to give their opinions. But, increasingly, they just want to try and guess what others will say and then go along with the crowd.