2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumHow many robo-call polls have to miss the mark by a mile before people stop posting them?
The Mitchell Research poll said Clinton would win Michigan by 37% (66% to 29%) - it was a robo-call poll.
The Target-Insyght poll said Clinton would win Michigan by 32% (62% to 30%) - it was a robo-call poll.
If you graph these robo-call polls, you would think this is how the race would play out:
If you believed the robo-call polls, here is what you would have expected in Iowa:
and New Hampshire:
and Nevada:
and Oklahoma:
and Massachusetts:
These robo-call polls are horribly inaccurate (and they always seem to err in favor of Clinton).
The Hillary crowd is going to continue to post robo-call polls. Just remember how inaccurate they have been in Hillary's favor and don't give those polls any attention.
Likewise, when you see the Hillary crowd blathering about Nate Silver's forecasts, remember that 358 is basing its forecasts on robo-call polls mixed in with the other polling so they have this bias built into the forecast model. Remember, Silver's 538 gave Hillary a 99% chance of winning Michigan. Garbage in, garbage out.
monicaangela
(1,508 posts)People love to feel they are on the winning team. If pollsters can harness those people with false polls it sometimes helps the candidate they are rooting for. Polls are impartial you might say. Don't count on it.
Attorney in Texas
(3,373 posts)monicaangela
(1,508 posts)That is why I try my best to ignore the polls. Polls have been so wrong lately I don't know why anybody pays them any attention anymore.
reformist2
(9,841 posts)To make you think that Hillary had this in the bag, even though there was no real-world evidence around for anyone to see. Still, seeing these numbers posted day after day gave it all an appearance of reality. Surely these polls couldn't *all* be wrong. They couldn't all be bought-and-paid for, could they????
After last night, I think we know the answer. Most of these polling agencies are corrupt. No way do they just happen to "miss" the surge for Bernie in every state by 8 - 10 or now 20 points.