How Accurate was Rasmussen's polling?

[Matt Collins]

FiveThirtyEight says (http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/04/rasmussen-polls-were-biased-and-inaccurate-quinnipiac-surveyusa-performed-strongly/) Rasmussen’s polls “badly missed the margin in many states, and also exhibited a considerable bias toward Republican candidates.” The last Rasmussen poll (http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2010/election_2010_governor_elections/tennessee/election_2010_tennessee_governor) in the Tennessee governor’s race showed a Haslam edge of 59-31. The actual margin was closer to 65-33. In TN's case, Rasmussen low-balled the Republican.

[MRoCkEd]

They were way off.

[oyarde]

Best I can tell , there was much polling in the senate races that was off .

[nate895]

Rasmussen is bad at polling, I am convinced. The problem with the past Senate elections is that so many polls were so far off, even the good ones in many cases.

[LibertyBrews]

They nailed Kentucky though.

[Brett85]

Rasmussen was way off in Neveda and Colorado, but so were all of the other polls as well. I think it was primarily because the RNC didn't have enough money to fund a national get out the vote effort this year.

[oyarde]

Rasmussen was way off in Neveda and Colorado, but so were all of the other polls as well. I think it was primarily because the RNC didn't have enough money to fund a national get out the vote effort this year.

I am not convinced they were off in Nevada and Colorado was close .

[oyarde]

They nailed Kentucky though.

Pretty much .

[klamath]

fivethirtyeight seems to have a thing against Rassmussen. A lot of polls were off. One of his favorites PPP was quite off on Rand. I think the monster wave rumors scared the democratic base to the polls.

[BlackSand]

I remember reading an article about houses without a land line are usually liberal. And that most polls dont call cells.

Could that be the bias were seeing?

[oyarde]

I remember reading an article about houses without a land line are usually liberal. And that most polls dont call cells.

Could that be the bias were seeing?

Interesting . I have no land line . I am a hardcore fiscal conservative .

[Fredom101]

If I remember correctly, Rassmusen was giving Ron Paul some pretty generous numbers pre-election, which is why a lot of us had unrealistic hopes for him in the primaries.