Why Does Rasmussen Always Have Polls That Underestimate Progressives?

[davidlynch]

I don't know if anyone has noticed, but Rasmussen always seems to have their thumb on the scale. Their polls have never,and I mean never been objective, they always give 5-10 points to the worst possible outcome. If you are watching, you always see how Rasmussen leans toward the worst: Bush, Lieberman, Cheney, McCain, Hillary, you name it. Is it just me, or does this organization have an "agenda"?

[FrenchieCat]

1. Ignore polls, you'll feel the better for it.

The are a delayed reaction.

Just like Obama's speech will not show up in the polls until 2 or 3 days from now, while the effects of Wright loops 24/7 will be what is measured tomorrow.

So in the end, nothing matters till the day before voting day...everything else is really pretty much bullshit, IMO.

[ingac70]

2. Their poll in Wisconsin was a joke...

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/wisconsin/wisconsin_democratic_presidential_primary

Rasmussen: Wisconsin: Obama 47% Clinton 43%

:eyes:

[bluestateguy]

3. Rasmussen is a very clever conservative pollster

What he does is he biases his polls with a very slight conservative bias, such that it can't be dismissed out of hand, but also lies on the outer edge of where all the other polls lie. So, for example, if other pollsters have a Democrat leading in a race by 6-8 points, Rasmussen will cook up a poll showing the Democrat up 4. If other pollsters have Bush with an approval rating of 30-33%, Rassmussen will put him at 37%.

[davidlynch]

4. Precisely this is what I thought too n/t

[maximusveritas]

7. Agreed

He's learned that he needs to build a reputation in order to have an effect. So he's spent some time trying to get less important races right. But he then takes the reputation he acquires from that and uses it to throw out BS polls on occasion.

[Blue_Roses]

5. this might help explain it:

Scott Rasmussen, an independent leaning Republican public opinion pollster, is the founder and CEO of Rasmussen Reports. He also co-founded the sports network ESPN, and is currently president of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association.

more...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Rasmussen

[davidlynch]

6. Thank you that explains a lot, the pool results are galling--isn't this supposed to be science? n/t

[Breeze54]

8. Because they're RW and I've been saying that for years!!

I said it to someone here yesterday but they keep using them as a source.

Why? I have no idea. Ignorance, maybe?

[Kokonoe]

9. How many times is a poll quoted when it shows what

we want it to say. Unless its an internal poll they are probably just popularity of results contests.
Free polls are as good as free advice.

[Perry Logan]

10. "Rasmussen is a Republican firm that regularly asks slanted questions..."

Here's something I ran across:

"Rasmussen is a Republican firm that regularly asks slanted questions and produces pro-Republican results through a questionable poll weighting method.

Rasmussen regularly has the wildest outliers of all on Bush job approval (typically about 5-7% higher than the average of other polls).

From the start of 2005, Rasmussen has weighted to make Rep and Dem party ID equal at 37%. Yet his table of unweighted data since start 2004 shows that in every month, the Dem figure exceeded the Rep figure, often significantly. This weighting introduces a persistent bias which can be quantified if you know the cross-tab data."

http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/3/17/11424/8443

[SoCalDem]

11. They are the official pollsters for Freepville.. that's why

They were the ones that Freeps gallantly clung to when all the other polls showed Bush's true numbers.. Rassmussen always rated him about 10 points higher :)