Poll Bravado Waning
Reported by Deborah - September 7, 2004 -
When the two polls, Newsweek and Gallup, were trotted out for the upteenth time, the rhetoric was a bit less enthusiastic and the the polling expert, Larry Shinman seemed somewhat non-committal. 9/06/04 9:20 PM ET
Mike Gallagher was all over the numbers while Shinman lacked confidence and clarity in his explanation. Obviously Shinman knows about the other polls out there and was thinking about his own reputation. Gallagher seemed to want Shinman to play the Fox game when he said,"Does Kerry have anything to be optimistic about?"
Shinman gave him the wrong answer, when he reported Karry's favorability in areas of trust
Colmes brought up some sticky points about accuracy when he said, "Bush is only ahead by 1 when registered voters, not likely voters are polled." An unspoken. question on how the likely voters were picked, was left hanging in the air.
Also Nader was given 3% in some versions, which is really a stretch, considering he can't seem to get on many state's ballots because of questionable signatures.
I had been waiting for years to be polled and last year, I finally got a call. A recording asked , if I had 20 minutes to answer some questions about politics. The voice instructed Republicans to press 1, Democrats 2, and Independants 3. When I pressed 2 for Democrat, I was disconnected. So much for polls.
