Obamaweek Strikes Again
By Mark Hemingway
So Newsweek released a new poll yesterday afternoon breathlessly reporting 'Barack finally has his bounce,' claiming that according to their latest poll Obama has opened up a 15 point lead against McCain. Further, Reuters did an entire article dedicated to nothing but trumpeting the Newsweek poll's results.
Looking at the the pollster.com and RCP polling averages I see that not a single other poll has Obama up by anything more than six. That's quite the outlier. And Newsweek's methodology here seems highly suspect -- 1010 people polled, and the bulk of that is 896 registered voters, comprised of 324 Democrats vs.231 Republicans, with the remainder indpendent. Compare that to the latest reults from other polls. USA TODAY/Gallup poll of 1310 likely voters (a higher pollster standard than registered voters) which has Obama up by six. Rasmussen polled 3000 likely voters and has Obama up by four.
Make no mistake about it, McCain is behind Obama in the polls -- but come on. This Newsweek poll sure looks aberrant, and for other organizations like Reuters to parrot the results sans context is ridiculous.
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that Newsweek Poll [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
From a political-junkie friend:
Anytime I see a Newsweek poll that shows a big lead for a Democrat, I am always reminded of Brit Hume's comments back in 2000:
"[B]y the way, with regard to the Newsweek poll, I think we now are beginning to know why The Washington Post, which owns Newsweek, does its polling with "ABC NEWS" and leaves Newsweek to do its — I think if Newsweek took a poll of the Bush family, Gore would win.
(Fox News Sunday, September 10, 2000)
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