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Remember in '06 When Bradley Beat Shea-Porter by 11?

by: Dean Barker

Sat Jul 10, 2010 at 14:04:15 PM EDT
Me either.

I guess in fairness to UNH, the 11 point fail was in the furthest outer limit of their +/-5.5 MoE if you wanted to call it a toss-up.

These are good memories to have when the next UNH poll comes out showing doom and gloom all around.
Dean Barker :: Remember in '06 When Bradley Beat Shea-Porter by 11?
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Remember in '06 When Bradley Beat Shea-Porter by 11? | 6 comments
Elections are not pugilistic contests. (4.00 / 1)
The suggestion that they are denigrates both the candidates and the electorate.

Polls merely serve to distract from the issues at hand.  At worst, they discourage voter participation.

I Wonder How Campaigns... (4.00 / 1)
...would change if there were no polls before Election Day.  At least, I bet "leadership" would be for the better, because candidates would feel more free to be honest, open, and daring enough to show their courage.  
[ Parent ]
There's a great documentary (4.00 / 1)
called "Constructing Public Opinion
How Politicians & the Media Misrepresent the Public"  that examines how public polling is used to manipulate public opinion.  

From the web site narrative:
"Exploding the myth that most Americans are moderate or conservative, Constructing Public Opinion demonstrates the way in which political elites help to promote the military industrial complex and how the media sustains belief in an electoral system with a built-in bias against the interests of ordinary people. Well illustrated with graphics and many examples of media coverage, it is the first film of its kind to present a critical analysis of media and public opinion."

You can watch a demo version of any documentary on this site as long as you can stand the words on the screen as the film plays. Small price to pay for excellent journalism.  

"Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world." A. Einstein

It was an amazing level of fail. (0.00 / 0)
I also remember when Coakley beat Scott Brown, that was another almost psychic prediction from UNH, 10 days or so out from that election.

http://www.boston.com/news/loc...

And lest you think -- well, that race was unpredictable -- here's another pollster on the same day saying it's a tossup:

http://publicpolicypolling.blo...

Tossup?!? Crazy talk. Coakley's up by 15 points. UNH said!

Basically, everywhere UNH polls you get these poll-defying last minute victory stories. Funny that.


Kos fired and sued (0.00 / 0)
his pollster for fraud.  Makes you wonder how much of a scam some of this might be.  Given how many firms of all sorts have given into the temptation for a fast buck over the past decade, who knows?
Concord Monitor (0.00 / 0)
ALL the Republicans running for Senate want to cut spending and repeal the healthcare law, and of course they want to cut taxes.  They want to destroy our economy, make sure there is no recovery, and guarantee that the common welfare is no longer part of the Constitution.  Great platform.  
Remember in '06 When Bradley Beat Shea-Porter by 11? | 6 comments

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