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Lies, #@%*$# Lies, and Opinion Polls - - What Do The Polls Mean, If Anything?
American Sentinel ^ | October 21, 2008 | jay1949

Posted on 10/22/2008 2:10:31 PM PDT by jay1949

Our expert pollsters have determined, with all of the accuracy and impartiality that modern statistical science and polling techniques can muster, that (1) the Presidential race is tightening while (2) Obama is pulling away and (3) the Presidential race remains remarkably stable. Say what??? Well, keep in mind that American novelist Samuel Clemens (a/k/a Mark Twain) wrote, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Presidential preference polls are, for better or worse, a form of statistics.

(Excerpt) Read more at theamericansentinel.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2008polls; mccain; obama; polls; presidentialelection

1 posted on 10/22/2008 2:10:31 PM PDT by jay1949
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To: jay1949

Further on this subject, you might be interested in a blog on American Thinker- http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/media_polls_pimping_for_obama.html


2 posted on 10/22/2008 2:17:53 PM PDT by Wegotsarah.com (WE WIN- WE HAVE SARAH, AND THEY DON'T!)
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To: jay1949

If “registered voter” numbers are so inaccurate,
why use these numbers to assign Dem/GOP weight factors?


3 posted on 10/22/2008 2:19:12 PM PDT by MrB (0bama supporters: What's the attraction? The Marxism or the Infanticide?)
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To: jay1949

The only poll that matters is the one in November.


4 posted on 10/22/2008 2:20:52 PM PDT by Jack Hammer (here)
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To: jay1949

Look, if the pollsters are right and McCain loses, we have all been delusional. But if the pollsters are wrong and McCain wins, the pollsters are frauds, and deserve to be prosecuted for fraud.


5 posted on 10/22/2008 2:59:02 PM PDT by Continental Soldier
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To: Wegotsarah.com

Thanks for the link - - good article


6 posted on 10/22/2008 4:19:48 PM PDT by jay1949 (Work is the curse of the blogging class)
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To: MrB

Partisan preference weighting is not based on voter registrations. In the case of Rasmussen, they take polls in which respondents are asked which party they belong to and (if none) which party they lean toward. In Virginia, where I live, and in a few other states, voters do not register by party, so if Rasmussen or whoever used Virginia’s official voter registration stats, we’d all be “other.” So the pollsters use self-reporting and Rasmussen (and probably some others) takes partisan preference polls separately from presidential preference polls, in order to ensure a more accurate result.


7 posted on 10/22/2008 4:19:48 PM PDT by jay1949 (Work is the curse of the blogging class)
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To: jay1949

bmflr


8 posted on 10/22/2008 11:17:19 PM PDT by Kevmo (I love that sound and please let that baby keep on crying. ~Sarah Palin)
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To: jay1949

lol I have paraphrased Twain’s line here a few times, there’s lies, there’s damned lies and there’s statistics, then there’s polls.


9 posted on 10/22/2008 11:20:44 PM PDT by word_warrior_bob (You can now see my amazing doggie and new puppy on my homepage!! Come say hello to Jake & Sonny)
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