Smeagol
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- Jun 14, 2012
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I just visited a popular conservative political blog who's headline was "Even NPR?" in a story about recent polling data. The unspoken message, polls are not scientific especially if the pollster is perceived as being for a particular political camp. Polls are yet another propaganda tool to be used to promote a political agenda. Or WE see polls as dishonest political manipulation fodder for our side and so we by default project that same MO as an assumption of all polls and as long as the final poll before election day is spot on, they can still dishonestly claim impartiality because "after all, they're were right."
Another one is a popular polls averages site. You'd think it would be a place where you could look to to get honest snapshots of where the country is politically with respect to the presidential election safely. After all even if methodology is slightly different (because we all know nobody is deliberately cooking the numbers to make one side look like they're doing better than they truly are) including ALL polls for respected sources and averaging them out would offset any unintentionally inaccurate result. Wait, not so fast...the main poll averages site everybody checks omitted an NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll for over a week that just so happened to look favorable to Obama. Then after other polls came out showing stronger numbers for Romney that offset the NBC/WSJ lead for Obama did they finally include it in their averages.
I would hope the polls were scientifically accurate but I'm starting question them.
Another one is a popular polls averages site. You'd think it would be a place where you could look to to get honest snapshots of where the country is politically with respect to the presidential election safely. After all even if methodology is slightly different (because we all know nobody is deliberately cooking the numbers to make one side look like they're doing better than they truly are) including ALL polls for respected sources and averaging them out would offset any unintentionally inaccurate result. Wait, not so fast...the main poll averages site everybody checks omitted an NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll for over a week that just so happened to look favorable to Obama. Then after other polls came out showing stronger numbers for Romney that offset the NBC/WSJ lead for Obama did they finally include it in their averages.
I would hope the polls were scientifically accurate but I'm starting question them.