It probably seems as though this news site is beating up on Florence, South Carolina attorney Marguerite Willis – one of three hardcore liberals running for the Democratic nomination for governor of South Carolina in 2018.

And maybe we are …

We dogged her out (twice) for a tone-deaf television commercial last month, and earlier this week we made fun of her for a ridiculous voter call.

The truth is Willis just keeps giving us fodder.

To wit …

During a Democratic debate on the campus of the University of South Carolina on Monday evening, Willis weighed in on a recent survey which showed that fifty percent of Democratic primary voters in the Palmetto State were “still undecided or unaware of who the candidates are.”

Do we buy that result (from a survey conducted by Michigan-based nonprofit Target-Insyght)? Not really …

Willis does, though …

“I love that poll,” she said.

“I only started four months ago, and if fifty percent of the folks don’t know these two guys who started last fall, I’m in good shape,” she added, referring to the candidacies of Charleston, S.C. businessman Phil Noble and former S.C. minority leader James Smith.

Fair point … but it was what came out of Willis’ mouth next that we found truly baffling.

“There was another poll that came out … that said I’m at 45 percent and James is at forty, so pick your poll,” she said.

Take a look …

(Click to view)

(Via: YouTube)

Wait … what?

Did we miss something? Because last time we checked, there have been no candidate-by-candidate results released in the Democratic race in several weeks.

Where on earth would Willis pull these numbers from?

Hmmm …

Hold up …

Wait a minute …

We know where we have seen those digits before …

According to our sources, Willis was referring to numbers posted inadvertently to the mobile news site of television station WLTX TV 19 (CBS – Columbia, S.C.) last week.

You know, these numbers …

(Click to view)

(Via: Provided)

As we exclusively reported, though, these aren’t poll numbers. Scientific or otherwise. Nor were they projections made by the station regarding the outcome of the race. They were literally test results – part of a pre-election walkthrough of the WLTX’s election night coverage that was mistakenly uploaded to the station’s mobile site.

In fact, WLTX top dog Rich O’Dell confirmed to this news site in the immediate aftermath of the snafu that the mistakenly uploaded data was “simply a test … not actual results.”

Willis is taking those numbers and running with them, though …

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Look, we get it. There is a reason the last few weeks of a political campaign is called “silly season.” But this is beyond silly …

We can’t decide whether Willis was legitimately confused when she touted these fake numbers (doubtful) or trying to invoke the old “bandwagon effect” in an effort to build support for her candidacy (a more likely explanation).

Either way, the marketplace of ideas was poorly served by her comments … just as it has been poorly served by this entire identity politics primary.

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