With the media/Democrats heading towards a brokered or perhaps even deadlocked convention, there will be plenty of further opportunities for mass media pollsters to continue outing themselves as incompetent hacks driven largely by agenda and *correct* along many of the same lines by which stopped clocks are correct.
Having said that, however, there already have been enough asinine polls to put together a list of the very best examples — or worst, depending upon your perspective — of media polling dissonance.
3. Rasmussen Poll of California Democrat Primary — February 3, 2008
Poll: Obama, 45-44
Result: Clinton, 52-43
Yeah, it’s true, there were other pollsters, e.g., Zogby, who were much further out to sea. Rasmussen, however, quite unlike Zogby, doesn’t have the excuse of being a blithering liberal idiot.
Furthermore Rasmussen is smart enough to know that Latinos and Asians were not going to vote for Obama under any circumstances, regardless of how they responded to telephone polling. The agenda of higher ratings was allowed to outweigh common sense. Tisk, tisk.
2. Gallup/USA Today Poll of New Hampshire Democrat Primary — January 6, 2008
Poll: Obama, 41-28
Result: Clinton, 39-36
Glug, glug, glug.
1. Datamar, Inc. Poll of Florida GOP Primary — Jan. 27, 2008
Poll: Romney over McCain, 36-23
Result: McCain over Romney, 36-31
When I first saw that poll I actually laughed at loud. Seriously.
The notion of Romney beating McCain in Florida was suspect. The notion of Romney beating McCain in Florida by the facially-preposterous margin of 13 full percentage points(!) was, well, downright liberal in its absurdity.
Didn’t anybody at Datamar stop to think McCain had just won the South Carolina primary the week beforehand??!! I mean, come on. Furthermore how could Romney possibly have won Florida by 13 full points over anybody — much less McCain — in what then was a four-way plurality contest?! Sheesh. Not to mention that Florida and South Carolina have one giant thing in common — large populations of active and retired military. Plus Florida’s GOP has a large percentage of staunchly-conservative and business-savvy Latinos, who for obvious reasons were going to vote more in favor of McCain than for Romney.
So, congratulations, Datamar. You take the cake.
