Thread: Rasmussen Polling Criticized By Liberal Left

They are starting already, discrediting one of the most accurate pollsters to sway public opinion so they can shove this health care bill and amnesty down our throats.


Personal Story

Bill O'Reilly

Scott Rasmussen


O'REILLY: "Personal story" segment tonight, a new Rasmussen poll says 71 percent of likely voters believe the military, not civilian authorities, should handle the captured Muslim terrorist from Nigeria as we mentioned. Also, 58 percent say water boarding should be used on the guy to get information. 58 percent.

Now that Rasmussen poll and other data from the organization is being criticized by left wing zealots who believe Scott Rasmussen is skewing his polling to the right.

Joining us now from New Jersey is Mr. Rasmussen. First of all, the difference between your poll and the FOX News poll and other polls, and they do differ on President Obama's job approval rating. You have him pretty much the lowest. Is that you poll only likely voters. Is that correct?

SCOTT RASMUSSEN, PRESIDENT OF RAMUSSEN REPORTS: That's correct. We poll likely voters. Most of the other media polled are adults. There is one of the Quinnipiac does registered voters. Their numbers are pretty similar to ours.

And what we know is that when you talk about likely voters, people who are younger and minorities are less likely to show up and vote. Those are groups that feel very supportive of the president, but they're not going to be helping out Democrats at the polls come November.

O'REILLY: Okay. Now, you heard Juan Williams say that the polling numbers, 71 percent want the guy, the Nigerian to go to the military, is based on emotion. And you know.

RASMUSSEN: Absolutely.

O'REILLY: .certainly, yeah, I mean, people are angry. I mean, Christmas, here's this idiot trying to blow up the plane. He gets off the plane. And they go, you know, let him go to the military and let the military take care of him. Does that make your result any less valid?

RASMUSSEN: No. You know, people aren't looking at this situation and trying to think very tactically about gee, should we water board or use some other technique? That's not the way people think about it. What they're saying is we want this situation dealt with in a firm manner.

The number who want this guy treated by the military is higher than the number we found for the Fort Hood shootings a little while ago. Why? Well, there now have been two events. Overall, the American people are coming to believe that our system has shift shifted too far in the direction of protecting individual rights at the expense of national security. And the numbers are pretty dramatic. They'd been moving a lot in the last few months.

O'REILLY: So what we can anticipate then is lower job approval ratings for President Obama in the early part of 2010, based upon the anger against this guy and the shift that you're talking about?

RASMUSSEN: I don't know that it will be that much lower for the president. Right now, Republicans are pretty united in their opposition to him. Unaffiliated voters are strongly opposed. But Democrats, the core base of the party, still very strongly supportive of everything that the president is doing. When we ask about his ratings overall on national security matters, guess what? Most Democrats, 70 percent, say he's doing a good or an excellent job.

O'REILLY: But it doesn't really.

RASMUSSEN: Yeah.

O'REILLY: .that doesn't make sense with the 71 percent who disagree with the civilian court deal.

RASMUSSEN: Oh, they disagree, they disagree with that. That's right. Democrats are.

O'REILLY: Right.

RASMUSSEN: .looking for an aggressive response. But when you talk about the president's approval ratings, I don't think those issues are going to move them in the short-term. Now if things continue to progress, that could have an impact.

O'REILLY: All right. Now the left wing is all over you, saying you're shilling for the right and you reply how?

RASMUSSEN: Well, first of all, I really appreciate all the people that are complaining now, being -- helping promote my polls in 2006 and 2008 because the trends were moving in that direction. We poll every single day. We do pick up trends ahead of others. We saw the Republican losses coming in the last couple of cycles.

And now, guess what? The trends have reversed. And the people on the political left don't like the message.

O'REILLY: All right, so you're saying that in 2006 and 2008, when you saw the weakness in the Republican party, the Bush policies going south, you called that. And they were fine with you. But now that it's in the opposite direction, they're not fine with you. Okay.

RASMUSSEN: Exactly.

O'REILLY: I do want to point out that you were very, very close on the presidential election. You almost hit it 100 percent.

RASMUSSEN: That's correct. We had a great cycle for the presidential year. We also, in 2008, were the first people to show Elizabeth Dole trailing in the North Carolina race back in 2006. We were the first to show George Allen trailing, the first to show Conrad Burns in trouble. Again, it's not because we're doing something really special. We are polling every single day.

O'REILLY: All right, and you also called Governor Christie in New Jersey.

RASMUSSEN: That's correct.

O'REILLY: .correctly also. So we have - of course, we use you a lot. And we wouldn't if we felt that you were skewing your poll one way or the other. So it doesn't look like you're sweating this too much here, Scott.

RASMUSSEN: No. Actually, it's good to have the accusations aired. It's better than a whispering campaign and not at all concerned.

O'REILLY: All right.

RASMUSSEN: We do our job the best we can. And we just go from there.

O'REILLY: Thank you.

www6.lexisnexis.com

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Left Attacks the Messenger: Hide the Decline in Rasmussen Pollsby Publius
From Politico:

Democrats are turning their fire on Scott Rasmussen, the prolific independent pollster whose surveys on elections, President Obama’s popularity and a host of other issues are surfacing in the media with increasing frequency.

The pointed attacks reflect a hardening conventional wisdom among prominent liberal bloggers and many Democrats that Rasmussen Reports polls are, at best, the result of a flawed polling model and, at worst, designed to undermine Democratic politicians and the party’s national agenda.

On progressive-oriented websites, anti-Rasmussen sentiment is an article of faith. “Rasmussen Caught With Their Thumb on the Scale,â€

Originally Posted by tinybobidaho

If someone can shorten this link, I would appreciate it. I can't seem to get TinyUrl to work for me.

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Originally Posted by tinybobidaho

Thanks, Jean. I never can get that thing to work for me.

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Originally Posted by jean

Originally Posted by tinybobidaho

Thanks, Jean. I never can get that thing to work for me.

You're welcome tiny.

If you ever need help with a link again feel free to pm me ok?

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