RS: PPP Polls Shows Why Issue Polling Is So Unreliable
One of the favorite shticks of Democrat pollster Public Policy Polling (PPP) is to ask questions designed to make Republican voters look bad. This kind of “troll polling” flatters all the usual sorts of people who love to laugh at what yokels the GOP’s supporters are, and as yet no Republican-leaning pollster has gotten into the regular business of giving Democrats a taste of the same medicine. If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s not to trust individual polls that can’t be checked against a polling average, but by definition these are all one-off polls. But there’s a deeper issue here that the latest PPP trolling question illustrates: that average Americans are far too trusting of pollsters, and the ability of pollsters to exploit that trust shows why polling on individual issues is untrustworthy.
Here’s the latest poll question that has PPP’s followers floating on a cloud of smug this morning:
Month: December 2015
Fifth Debate Analysis and Boyd Strategy Essay
My longest deep dive of the year, from the theories of John Boyd: Military Strategist Explains Why Donald Trump Leads – And How He Will Fail
In the LA Times: To understand Donald Trump, look to Europe
Debate Review: The Superstars Bleed
Pick Your Favorite Lindsey Graham Face
Pick Your Favorite Lindsey Graham Face
RS: Pick Your Favorite Lindsey Graham Face
Look, Lindsey Graham is what he is by now. He’s a serious voice on national security, whether or not you agree with his neoconservative point of view. He’s also an irritatingly moderate figure on many other issues, especially given that he’s elected by deep-red South Carolina. He’s the only serious, influential figure on the undercard stage, given that none of Huckabee, Santorum or Pataki has won an election in the past 13 years. Really Graham should quit this race, and the undercard debates should be brought to an end, as we get closer to the voting. But as long as they go on, we may as well get a few laughs from them. So pick your favorite face Senator Graham (R-SC) made in tonight’s debate: