EDITORIAL - Courting a triple whammy

Senator Richard Gordon, the presidential candidate of the Bagumbayan Party, has sued the poll firms Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia. Asking for P650,000 in damages, he accuses the poll firms of undermining his candidacy by consistently ranking him low in their surveys.

It is up to the court to determine whether the accusation holds any water. Off the cuff, however, it would have been better if Gordon just let the matter pass and did not file any suit against the pollsters. Now he runs the risk of getting hit by a triple whammy.

Not only has Gordon been suffering from low rankings in the surveys, but he might also actually suffer low rankings in the actual elections, thereby validating the results of all those surveys.

Now, he can question his low survey rankings but he cannot question the results of the elections. Unless, of course, he goes through the beaten path toward that lame excuse of most losers -- that they have been cheated.

And since the justice system in this country cannot be expected to run swiftly, the court decision regarding the complaint he filed against SWS and Pulse Asia cannot be expected before the elections. It has to come later.

And what a hole Gordon will have to sink in if the court finds that there is no basis to his allegation that the two pollsters have deliberately, or as a consequence of flawed methods, undermined his candidacy. Three successive blows cannot be fallacious.

Instead of going to court, Gordon should have prepared himself for the eventuality of losing. This is not to say he does not have a chance. But in the same way that he believes he can win, so should he believe that he can lose.

Besides, in any election contest where there are multiple candidates, voters, or respondents in the case of surveys, always have that tendency to gravitate toward the perceived top two leading contenders.

Thus it would seem that it is always a neck-to-neck battle between the top two leading contenders. The third placer starts to fall much farther back. And from there downward, the rankings start to really get spaced out.