The highly enjoyable website 538.com has updated its review of the pollsters. A word about the site before getting into the pollster’s grades – While a former Daily Kos diarist runs the site, his statistical analysis is insightful. His commentary, while leftish, is thoughtful and decidedly non-screedish. In a more perfect world, 538.com would be the most popular left of center blog. Alas, it isn’t but I still highly recommend you bookmark it. Now on to the pollsters. It won’t come as any surprise to people who have paid close attention this primary season that among national polling outfits, Survey USA comes in first by a decent margin while Rasmussen comes in second. Bringing up the rear are CBS/New York Times in next to last and Zogby Interactive in last place. Kudos to the kids running Zogby Interactive – they came in last by a country mile. In fairness to the Z-Man, his traditional polls rank in the middle of the pack which suggests that Zogby may have some interest in reclaiming his reputation and the ability to do so. Then again, his hideous Interactive polls imply just the opposite. And then there’s the forlorn Grey Lady, continuing to issue wretched polls. One can’t help but feel a twinge sympathy for the old gal – I bet she never guessed that anyone would track her record on these matters. Biggest surprise? ARG didn’t come in last, but merely did much worse than average. Still, ARG outperformed reputable outfits such as Gallup and Fox/Opinion Dynamics. I guess that means I should ease up on ARG, but I have no interest in doing so. What’s most interesting about the gold and silver medalists, SUSA and Rasmussen, is that they’re the two pollsters who have most prominently attempted to devise new methods to poll a changing public in a new communications era. In other words, pundits who mock the “robocalls” can now officially stop doing so. Although they also could have stopped doing so after Rasmussen nailed the 2004 election.
