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.
Trego's Mountain Ear 