All the internals reported, including party affiliation, are in the pdf from the college describing the actual results. They report D/R/I/Other (never saw that last column before of 35/31/29/4. Myself, I'da lumped independent in with other.
I don't think this is such an outlier. It's a late poll and is likely catching the movement toward Gov. Romney. This is backed up by the polls own internals showing that undecideds are moving pretty strongly in his direction.
Common sense suggests that the Quinnipiac poll is the outlier. Q has a reputation as being a hack organization. I've been following their polls for a long time - always biased. But concerning this poll specifically, it's a D+7 poll. Worse, it's an admitted PUSH POLL, asking nine leading questions favoring the anti-Christ BEFORE getting to the “who would you vote for?” question. Gee whiz! Why bother? Even still, after all that huffing and puffing, they only get to a 2% advantage for the Kenyan.
Common sense suggests ignoring products from the Wash Post/ABC folks. They don't even pretend.
Methodology matters.
sitetest
No argument from me regarding Q-pac; I’ve follwed them for a long time too and know how biased they are. They are so *consistently* biased that their polls — jokes though they are — can be useful if properly adjusted.
Is the ‘Field Poll’ still around? They were masters of laughably consistent leftism too. Other media polls are obviously heavily biased as well but they tend to be all over the place, mixing up a new formula of Special Sauce as needed to inspire the Rats and prop up their favored candidates.
I did not know that Q-pac used push-poll tactics to get their desired results on this particular poll, though I can’t say I’m surprised.