Blaming the Pollster Instead of the President

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,” blared the Daily Kos this summer. “Rasmussen Reports, You Decide,” the blog Swing State Project recently headlined in a play on the Fox News motto.

“I don’t think there are Republican polling firms that get as good a result as Rasmussen does,” said Eric Boehlert, a senior fellow with Media Matters, a progressive research center. “His data looks like it all comes out of the RNC [Republican National Committee].”

Excellent! From where I’m standing the Left’s dismissal of the Rasmussen polls couldn’t come as better news. So long as those on the Left only pop their collective heads out of their collective tailpipes just long enough to engage in a tepid game of Snipe at the Pollster instead of addressing problems a wee bit bigger than the Messiah’s falling numbers, they are ceding the Right a straight shot to victory in 2010 and 2012.

Yep, it’s not the economy, unemployment, the apology tours, the bowing, the pathetic response to terrorists, ObamaCare, Cap and Trade, Stimulus, Communist Czars or cronyism-it’s the pollster! Keep up the good works, comrades. Nobody expected it to be this easy.

More at:

Memeorandum

Jules Crittenden Messenger Under Fire

Gateway Pundit It Has Begun… Dems Lash Out at Pollster For Not Reporting More Favorable Numbers

Yid with Lid Political Hubris: Democrats Blame Pollster Rasmussen For Voters Rejection of Their Agenda

Don Surber Poll: 2009 was worse than 2008

and from Doug Ross:

In related news, Democrats also blasted a long list of organizations for "biased and unfavorable reporting that hurts the administration's agenda". The list includes:

• The Bureau of Labor Statistics for continuing to report on double-digit unemployment and increased mass layoff events.

• USA Today for reporting that job losses during President Obama's rookie year exceeded the job losses in any single year since World War II.

• John Mauldin of Frontline for pointedly noting that almost every government-issued statistic is becoming "more and more distorted" (i.e., bogus).

• Various California newspapers for predicting that the state's home values have yet to hit bottom.

• Tyler Durden of ZeroHedge for warning that the U.S. Treasury stands at risk, stating: "Brace for impact: in 2010, demand for U.S. [bonds] has to increase eleven-fold... or else."

• Wells Fargo for warning that commercial real estate remains dramatically overpriced.• John Williams of ShadowStats for stating unequivocally that "[the] U.S. has no way of avoiding a financial Armageddon."

• Vincent Fernando of Business Insider for noting that the Baltic Dry Index, which measures the level of international trade, "is collapsing."

• Real estate brokers in California for warning that a tidal wave of "shadow inventory" -- foreclosed properties -- has yet to resurface on the market, which would have "a substantial impact on the [local] housing supply if they were to come onto the market" by crushing home values.

• The New York Times for reporting that as many as 6 million Americans have no income other than food stamps.

Democrats do, however, concede that most of the "biased reporting" issues will fade in importance as the federal government institutes its regulations for bloggers and bails out the newspaper business.