Post Poll: Nearly Useless

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The Washington Post gets some attention this morning for a poll that shows John McCain losing to Barack Obama by 12 points and Hillary Clinton by 6. The findings are a bit of a surprise, since recent polls have shown McCain trailing Obama by just 5 or so, and roughly even with Clinton. Why the discrepancy? It helps to look at the Post‘s raw data. Go to the section on party identification, and you find this:

Do you lean more towards the: Democratic Party: 46 Republican Party: 26 Neither: 22

As a point of reference, compare this to the exit polls for the 2006 election — the best Democratic performance in 32 years:

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