Dan-
I read this article over the weekend. It’s exactly what I’ve been saying all along. Rasmussen’s been a “Christian Warrior” and totally in bed with the RNC.

One time, when Rasmussen appeared on Hannity, Hannity referred to Rasmussen as a good Republican conservative. Rasmussen’s face went white (okay, whiter) and he had to make of point of his “independence” as a pollster. But, basically, this was a slip by Hannity letting the cat out of the see-through bag.

If you don’t agree with the message, kill the messenger!Right from the Democrat playbook. Good Luck, I suggest you follow Zogby much more your speeed!

I agree that Rasmussen favors our side until the final weeks of an election. At that point, he values being seen as accurate more than bumping down the Ds a few points. I think that is what really happens. The overall GOP numbers are usually fairly stable over time but the D numbers tend to come up at the finale of a campaign just before the real world intrudes with a real result.
If you take that bias into account, Ras gives you a more reliable view than most other pollsters who survey Pa. as to the GOP numbers.

That is an excellent point GOPHAWK. I think that the reason thie happens is that Ras measures “likely voters” in most (all?) his polls rather than pollsters who do not use that universe until the very end of a campaign. In the survey research I’ve seen Ds statistically have a larger voter apathy and as such need to push people to the polls (recent 2 cycles excepted). With a greater amount of voters who may not end up voting, the other pollsters measure “elligible” voters and these polls cannot properly measure those who actually go to the polling place on election day. Just my $0.02.

I’m with Karen on this one. The Dsms are angry and are lashing out at all possible enemies. This sometimes works for a while, but not very long. Ask Richard Nixon.

Woops, the last comment was Michael not Daniel, somebody’s been eating my porridge said Father Bear

Karen, GOPHawk, ChescoTom (and of course Dan/Mike)-

Rasmussen is a right-wing GOP cheerleader.

One of the “problems” is with his choices of “likely voters” that tend to favor older white Republican voters in his sample.

I will go with GOP Hawk in that Rasmussen tends to return to reality close right before the election, so he can claim accuracy. But, before that, he’s clearly trying to skew the numbers to show the GOP more favorably.

The other useful point about the Rasmussen polls (for our side, anyway) is that his questions are actually framing the issue. He chooses certain facts and certain issues and articulates them in a way that elicits a strong view. If you are a member of the party, all you need to do is take his question, make it a statement and bask in the applause from your audience.
I suspect that he holds back certain data because it does not deliver the big bang that he wants the party spokespeople to have. He plays around with the wording or the facts to include in the question until the overwhelming support or opposition is expressed and bingo! he then delivers the data.
Because he polls so often and because the media is so lame, Ras is able to set the table for the arguments in the media in a way that are already tilted in our direction. It is clever and works with the traditional media almost all the time. The Ds should do the same if they want to counteract the impact.
The three elements are: 1) poll often; 2) only release the best framing data; 2) rely on lame media to talk about the well-framed data.

GOPHawk-
All the reasons you mention are the very definition of a disreputable pollster.