EckerNet.Com

The Democrats have declared war on Rasmussen:

Democrats are turning their fire on Scott Rasmussen, the prolific independent pollster whose surveys on elections, President Obama’s popularity and a host of other issues are surfacing in the media with increasing frequency.

The pointed attacks reflect a hardening conventional wisdom among prominent liberal bloggers and many Democrats that Rasmussen Reports polls are, at best, the result of a flawed polling model and, at worst, designed to undermine Democratic politicians and the party’s national agenda.

It\’s hardly a flawed model but it isn\’t a direct poll of public opinion at large either.  It\’s a predictive model, hence more useful for governmental systems like Democracies and Republics (that would be us).  Rather than poll just adults, regardless of whether they are politically involved, Rasmussen instead polls likely (not just registered) voters.  Polls that sample registered voters tend to skew more towards Democrats, even more so when you poll adults regardless of their voting liklihood.  That may very well tell you the opinion of the masses, but it hardly predicts what the voters will say….which is what matters in a system of government like ours.

Democrats prefer polls like Gallop or even Quinnipiac because they use adults and registered voters respectively.  Both of these models are likely to report results heavily skewed towards Democrats.  Especially since both of these agencies have a tendency to sample Democrats at a vastly greater rate than Republicans.  Even though Obama won by SEVEN points (with some Republican crossover even), both of these agencies have tended to sample Democrats over Republicans by double digit points.

Only then do Democrats get the results they want…unfortunately they are useless for anything other than making Democrats feel good.

Problem with this latest attack by the Democrats is even by their own standards their argument fails.  Because while Rasmussen has been reporting bad news for the Democrats, that ill will amongst likely voters has spread so that even the other polling agencies have been reporting that registered voters and even adults in general aren\’t exactly thrilled with Democratic Leadership.  In fact, their behavior has so revolted much of the public that that still shows through in polls sampled heavily with Democrats.

Democrats can attack Rasmussen all they want it doesn\’t change reality.  It\’s amusing that a group that used to claim it was the reality-based community is so knee-jerk opposed to anyone documenting it.  Not that it much matters, as they can deny all they want.  It\’s still going to come around and smack them in November.