[lbo-talk] Re: washingtonpost.com: Don't Ask Me

Miles Jackson cqmv at pdx.edu
Thu Oct 28 11:21:34 PDT 2004


On Thu, 28 Oct 2004, Michael Pollak wrote:


> This shows these guys aren't even trying to account for what's going on.
> They're in full CYA mode. The last presidential election was notable for
> its unrandom error: 85% of the polls called it for Bush and Gore won.

I have my criticisms of the pollsters, but this is not a reasonable assessment. Almost all the polls Doug posted earlier did not "call it for Bush"; the difference in the sample percentages for B & G were within the margin of error for the poll. --In other words, the poll results were consistent with the voting outcome, as precisely as we can measure with these polls. You're assuming a higher level of accuracy than the polls can provide.

Miles



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