Who Frank Luntz Doesn't Want to Sit Near on a Plane

Pollster and wordsmith Frank Luntz was in New York appearing on almost every Fox News show this week, talking about the upcoming election and its implications. But over the last 24 hours, he has been focusing on another topic: NPR’s firing yesterday of Juan Williams for remarks he made on The O’Reilly Factor about feeling nervous when he sees Muslims on a plane.

The results of a focus group he conducted in Connecticut last night were unanimous: Republicans and Democrats alike, after listening to Williams’s comments word-for-word, thought what he said was “perfectly fine,” according to Luntz. What’s more, he said, “All 30 in the group thought he was fired for the wrong reasons, and 28 of the 30 thought he should be brought back to NPR. Two of them thought he should do something better.”

Luntz flies around the country a lot, and told Imus that while he “thinks for a second” and then goes to his seat when he sees someone dressed in Muslim garb on a plane, he’s more creeped out by other passengers.

“I’m not a thin guy, but if I see someone who’s really big, I’m praying I’m not next to them,” he said. Also on Luntz’s no-fly list: babies. “I’m screwed if I’m sitting next to them,”

Since Luntz is “so far in the tank for Republicans, you need scuba gear,” as Imus put it, pollster Scott Rasmussen had joined Imus earlier this week to give an unbiased opinion on how the midterms will swing.

“He’s great,” Luntz said, through clenched teeth, about Rasmussen. “I follow his polling. I use his numbers to tell me where things are at.” Imus thus likened the vitriol Luntz probably feels toward Rasmussen to that which exists between Fox News hosts Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, and Glenn Beck.

Even though President Obama’s approval rating is lower than ever in this country, Luntz told Imus just how bad it is overseas. “Barack Obama has a four percent favorability rating in Israel, and that poll had a five percent margin of era,” he said.

On the home front, Luntz thinks it’s all over for Senator Harry Reid in Nevada after his performance in a debate with opponent Sharron Angle. “He’s been in Washington for a quarter-of-a-century…you’d expect someone to be able to speak for 60 seconds without looking down,” Luntz said.

A good barometer for how bad things will fare for the Democrats on election night, Luntz said, will be races in Kentucky and Indiana, where polls close at 6pm. “If Rand Paul wins by four points or more, you’re looking at a very strong Republican night,” Luntz said, referring to Kentucky’s Senate race.

Though unofficial, Luntz conducted a quick mini-poll about the I-Man as today’s visit drew to a close: What is the percentage of love-to-hate for people in Imus’s life?

“About 50-50,” Imus said. It remains unclear on which side of the divide Luntz, "an adequate sport", falls.

-Julie Kanfer