Trego's Mountain Ear

Real Clear Politics has published a study evaluating national and state pollsters.  It’s the sort of thing that was never part of my job, but I am certainly pleased to see their work.  The study is at realclearpolitics.  While I’ve copied the table, I encourage everyone to click the link and read the whole thing.  I knew Fox and Quinnipiac lacked something in sampling or models – but this study seems competently done and is nice to have.  Another article, written by RCP staffwriter Carl A Cannon can be downloaded here.

Both articles are worth reading – this excerpt shows why:

Rank	Pollster	Avg
1	Selzer & Co.	2.0
2	InsiderAdvantage	2.6
3	UMass Lowell	3.0
4	Susquehanna	3.3
5	Trafalgar Group	3.4
6	Emerson	3.9
7	CBS News/YouGov	4.0
8	CNBC/Change Research	4.1
9	Suffolk	4.3
10	SurveyUSA	4.4
10	Rasmussen Reports	4.4
12	HarrisX	4.8
12	NY Times/Siena	4.8
14	Marist College	4.9
15	CNN	5.0
16	PPP	5.2
17	Remington Research	5.3
18	ABC News/Washington Post	5.4
18	Monmouth	5.4
18	FOX News	5.4
18	Reuters/Ipsos	5.4
22	Mason-Dixon	5.5
23	Quinnipiac	5.7

Now go back and click the link – there are a bunch of charts looking at these pollsters, and it makes the news a lot easier to understand.