Tag: polls

The Good News and the Bad News about Obama’s poll numbers.

The Bad News is that Barack Obama’s poll numbers (which are abruptly no longer underwater) are reflecting the fact that the Republican party is busy having an unexpected civil war in its primary, not to mention an existential crisis that might end up with people like me leaving politics for good. The Good News is that President Obama isn’t actually doing anything.  Yes, he’s waving around Merrick Garland around, more or less perfunctorily; and yeah, he went to Cuba and allowed himself to be used as a mobile prop.

But generally all of this is telling the man that being King Log is a good working strategy for him.  I don’t mind him being King Log.  Him being King Log works for me.  At least it’s predictable.  And, indeed, not particularly productive, which is nice because, you know, we’re in the middle of a civil war in the Republican party and so forth…

Quote of the Day, Yeah, The Polls Are Garbage edition.

My RedState colleague streiff, on the fundamentals:

If polls are to be meaningful the MUST do two things. First, they must predict the order in which candidates finish. This isn’t terribly hard. A half dozen RedState commenters could accurately pick the order of finish in just about any race this cycle. The polls can’t reliably do that. And I’m not talking about squeakers where one candidate edges another by a point or less. I’m talking about missing the wholesale collapse of a candidate. Second, they must be able to get the vote, if not within MOE, by at least order of magnitude. When the second place finisher is understated by 13 points the polling is simply broken. It doesn’t need a tweak it needs massive rethinking.

The underlying problem in this cycle thus far is that it’s fairly easy to get Donald Trump’s range: anywhere from 35-41%. Where it always breaks down is what happens after that, and ‘what happens after that’ is fairly significant when we’re fighting for every delegate. If the polls had been more accurate then Marco Rubio might have dropped out last week, which would have probably given Ted Cruz Missouri and North Carolina and given him a good shot at Illinois*. The good news there is that the calendar is going to be a little less crowded from here on in, so we may see better work.

Or not.

Moe Lane

*Mind you, I’m not going to play should-haves: we don’t have time travel, so the exercise is pointless.

CBS Buries the Lede in shock New Hampshire poll showing Bernie Sanders at 52%.

I’m trying not to weigh in too heavily on the polls this early out, but this is ridiculous. Not to mention, a provocation. And, for some odd reason, not easy to embed.

norah

Continue reading CBS Buries the Lede in shock New Hampshire poll showing Bernie Sanders at 52%.

A PSA on ‘early exit polls,’ ‘polling reports,’ and 95% of reporting from now until the polls close.

All of it? Bullshit.

Via

Democrats: The polls are skewed!

Oh, my.

Democrats have a new message in the 2014 race for the Senate: Don’t trust the polls.

The party is stoking skepticism in the final stretch of the midterm campaign, providing a mirror image of conservative complaints in 2012 about “skewed” polls in the presidential race between President Obama and Republican Mitt Romney.

Democrats who do not want their party faithful to lose hope — particularly in a midterm election that will be largely decided on voter turnout — are taking aim at the pollsters, arguing that they are underestimating the party’s chances in November.

First off, let me give the Democrats all the response they really deserve to this: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Ahem. Continue reading Democrats: The polls are skewed!

Quote of the Day, Larry Sabato Knows His Audience edition.

:Opening mouth:
:Closing mouth:

It’s true.

America has a love-hate relationship with polls. If you’ve clicked on this column, you likely cull through the latest survey numbers every chance you get.

They’re like Twinkies, really: tasty, not really good for you in large quantities, and made out of things that you almost certainly don’t want to see, close up and personal.

The Democratic Party’s War on Women rhetoric doesn’t seem to be working.

Ooooh.

The article doesn’t disappoint, either.

An important bellwether is the question of which party voters would prefer to control Congress, and it has long been the case that men prefer a Republican Congress and women favor a Democratic Congress.

But the poll conducted Sept. 3-7 found that women’s Democratic preference had shrunk to a 47%-40% margin — down from 51% -37% a month earlier. The swing was especially sharp among white women, who gave Democrats a 4 point edge in August; in the new poll, Republicans enjoyed 48%-40% advantage.

Continue reading The Democratic Party’s War on Women rhetoric doesn’t seem to be working.

Fox News Poll: 57% would tell Obama to go away if they were Democratic candidates.

Man, that’s just cruel.

A new poll that asked voters to put themselves in the shoes of 2014 Democratic candidates found that a majority would not want President Obama to join them on the campaign trail.

According to the Fox News survey released Tuesday, 57 percent of respondents said no to hypothetical appearances with the president, whose job approval rating in the same poll stands at 42 percent. Only 41 percent said they would want Obama to join them on the stump.

Continue reading Fox News Poll: 57% would tell Obama to go away if they were Democratic candidates.

KTSP/SurveyUSA poll in Minnesota shows Mark Dayton, Al Franken having problems.

What a lovely poll that is.

Well, it’s lovely from my point of view, at least.

Gov. Mark Dayton and Sen. Al Franken survived recounts when they won their first elections to the governor’s office and U.S. Senate. According to our latest KSTP/SurveyUSA poll, they might have to sweat our close races again in 2014. Franken clings to a six-point lead over his closest Republican challenger Mike McFadden, 48 percent to 42 percent. The poll has a margin of sampling error of +/- 3.1 percent.

[snip]

Governor Dayton also faces a potentially close re-election bid. He also leads his nearest competitor by just six points. The GOP-endorsed candidate for governor, Jeff Johnson, trails Dayton 46% to 40%.

Continue reading KTSP/SurveyUSA poll in Minnesota shows Mark Dayton, Al Franken having problems.

Harry Reid: The polls are skewed!

Well now.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid maintained that his party’s candidates lead “virtually all over the country,” rejecting polls that undermine that claim as compromised by bad methodology.

“We’re ahead virtually all over the country,” Reid replied during a Senate briefing when asked about a Pew poll showing that the current political environment is more hostile towards Democrats than in 2010. “I don’t need to run through the states with you, but, we’re doing okay.”

Reid said recent polls aren’t reliable because pollsters can’t get in touch with a lot of voters who use cellphones.

Continue reading Harry Reid: The polls are skewed!