Taking the heat

We've gotten attacked all over the place today, which I think is just something any polling company has to deal with when candidates have supporters who are so passionate. Here are some of my favorites.

From the Politico blog comments:

PPP is Clintonite. If you go back and see their polling throughout the campaign, you will find them poling states in favor of the Clintons by a larg margine, which Obama ended up winning. PPP uses the trick that the undecided are more likely to go with whomever polls project as a sure winner.

Uh, I guess that's why we showed Obama up by more than any other polling company in the country in Wisconsin and South Carolina. I don't think the Clinton folks thought we were very 'Clintonite' then. (We were right on the races in those states, by the way.)

A poster named Libelian at Talking Points Memo who claims to be from Chapel Hill writes:

PPP is teh suck...For Ohio, SurveyUSA nailed it, and PPP was way off...PPP still has no traction this season. They haven't made a good call yet.

We said Clinton was going to win by nine in Ohio and she won by ten. I don't think it's PPP that's way off, I think it's this ignorant commenter. Do a second of research before you cast aspersions. And read this, this, this, and this.

We try to be a model of transparency for a pollster in explaining exactly who we're calling and how we're weighting for each poll. But the Clinton folks are coming and writing on our own blog that they think we changed our universe intentionally to help Barack Obama:

Well, could just keep changing your method untill he get 100% of the yes vote...

and

Maybe next time, you could poll only those people who say they will vote for Obama.

My favorite of the day though came from Democratic frontrunner Bev Perdue, who told News 14's Tim Boyum that after our poll came out earlier this month showing her up 27 she thought 'somebody must be smoking something.' I'm not sure whether she thinks I was smoking something or the voters who answered the poll were smoking something but either way I imagine that her making this kind of statement when she's off script is the reason for her limited press availability and reluctance to debate.

For the record though Bev, I don't drink or smoke, apparently unlike your children when they were teenagers :)