Legal Commentary

More About Polling And The Media

By Big Tent Democrat

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

While I think this Wall St Journal blog post Jeralyn pointed out to me is right that ARG is a lousy pollster, I do find it ironic that Survey USA's poll ranking survey is referenced, but its Pennsylvania poll showing Hillary Clinton ahead by 18 is not. Instead, this strange comment from the Quinnipiac pollster is featured:

I don’t see that much movement in Pennsylvania myself,” Mr. Richards said by phone from Harrisburg on Monday. . . . Both pollsters agreed that Sen. Obama hasn’t been hurt much by his remarks about small-town Pennsylvania voters last week. . . . Mr. Richards said, “My hunch is [the remarks] won’t make much of a difference because most voters who might feel insulted by his comments were already Clinton voters or [R]epublicans who weren’t going to vote for him, anyway.”

(Emphasis supplied.) I never trust a pollster who is providing me with punditry. Mr. Richards lost a lot of my trust with that. In addition his expectations of what tonight's polling is going to be also is bothersome. SUSA is the world's greatest pollster right now based on the record and based on behavior. Maybe the Media will notice some day.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on April 14, 2008 (boomark / email).