O'Reilly says he does not endorse candidates; then condemns two democrats!

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Betty Castor holds a slim lead ahead of Republican Mel Martinez, a new Florida Zogby Poll shows.

The polls show Tom Daschle and challenger John Thune,each with a lead of a few points, meaning the race is statistically tied. A recent Zogby poll has Mr. Thune up by three percentage points, 49 percent to 46 percent. A Mason-Dixon , but O'Reilly already predicted Daschle the loser anyway! His non-endorsement reminds me of a backdoor draft!

That poll created by wingnut John Ziegler purporting to demonstrate that Obama voters were misinformed by the mainstream media about Barack Obama and Joe Biden (and defended so scatalogically by Ziegler) has been examined by objective polling experts beyond Nate Silver now, and the verdict is unanimous:

Wall Street Journal:

"..Interpreted the numbers from the survey in a misleading fashion."

Pollster.com:

The Zogby summary quotes Ziegler claiming that "the poll really proves beyond any doubt the stunning level of malpractice on the part of the media in not educating the Obama portion of the voting populace."

The problem, as Silver points out, is that the survey does no such thing. It proves only that Obama voters surveyed were less likely to attribute to Obama or Biden a half dozen statements that were "at best debatable, yet apparently represented as factual to the respondent" ...

... Describing his biased, leading questions as a legitimate test of knowledge is hugely misleading, at best.

Even John Zogby himself is running from this survey, claiming it was put together while he was on vacation. While paying lip service to its ostensible validity, he adds:

“I also believe it was not our finest hour. This slipped through the cracks. It came out critical only of Obama voters.”

Worth noting, however: Everyone seems in agreement that this was not a "push poll" in the strict sense of the term, but rather was in a similar vein of being a misleading survey deployed for partisan political purposes.

Ziegler himself has posted a rambling, incoherent defense that attempted to answer the chief issue -- the factual invalidity/dubiousness of many of his questions -- thus:

These questions were carefully chosen to try and identify which news stories broke through the clutter and reached the average Obama voter. Ironically, one of the main reasons that the questions enrage the left is that many of the questions were based on news stories that the left-wing media ignored. In other words, because the left-wing ignored the negative aspects of Obama's past, they weren't reported and therefore weren't significant (or didn't really happen)and so any mention of them is evidence of a right-wing agenda lacking in credibility. Holy circular argument Batman!!

Many left-wing blogs (and many of the thousands of e-mail I have recieved from their readers) are absolutely obsessed with trying to prove that the wording of certian questions was not 100% accurate, as if that would have made any difference at all except in the case of the question about Russia.

Actually, as we already pointed out, the questions were far from 100 percent accurate, and in many cases were nearly 100 percent inaccurate:

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Ed Morrissey at Hot Air is plumping the efforts of an outfit called HowObamaGotElected, which in turn is now being bandied eagerly throughout the wingnutosphere.

Their main theme, apparently, is that Obama voters were "ignorant" because they hadn't absorbed the wingnuts' favorite smears about Obama during the campaign. The site claims that it commissioned a "Zogby Poll" which came up with the following results:

512 Obama Voters 11/13/08-11/15/08 MOE +/- 4.4 points

97.1% High School Graduate or higher, 55% College Graduates

Results to 12 simple Multiple Choice Questions

57.4% could NOT correctly say which party controls congress (50/50 shot just by guessing)

81.8% could NOT correctly say Joe Biden quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism (25% chance by guessing)

82.6% could NOT correctly say that Barack Obama won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot (25% chance by guessing)

88.4% could NOT correctly say that Obama said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket (25% chance by guessing)

56.1% could NOT correctly say Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground (25% chance by guessing).

And yet.....

Only 13.7% failed to identify Sarah Palin as the person on which their party spent $150,000 in clothes

Only 6.2% failed to identify Palin as the one with a pregnant teenage daughter

And 86.9 % thought that Palin said that she could see Russia from her "house," even though that was Tina Fey who said that!!

Only 2.4% got at least 11 correct.

Only .5% got all of them correct. (And we "gave" one answer that was technically not Palin, but actually Tina Fey)

Now, the data about the voters' ability to correctly identify facts about Sarah Palin -- as well as their understandable confusion about what Palin actually said about Russia, considering that in fact she did say that one could see Russia from Alaska -- is essentially meaningless; a survey of McCain voters would almost certainly come up with similar statistics.

But as Nate Silver says, this is flat-out push-polling. Look at the questions in the first half of the data summary -- nearly every one of the supposed "facts" is either simply false or a grotesque distortion:

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Most political observers know to stop reading when they see the phrase, “According to a poll from Zogby Interactive…” and yet, yesterday, I couldn’t believe the commotion caused by a poll that obviously didn’t make any sense.

About 24 hours ago, two polls came out -- a Zogby Interactive poll (with questionable methodology) showing Hillary Clinton struggling against the top GOP candidates, and a Gallup poll (with more reliable methodology) showing the opposite. Guess which one got too much attention?

While the Zogby poll was mentioned by multiple reporters and pundits, the only mentions the Gallup poll got on TV were from Hillary advisers who had to bring it up themselves on the air in order to inject it into the conversation.

Of course, every political reporter, editor, and producer in the country knew that Zogby Interactive results were unreliable, but they trumpeted the results anyway.

Wouldn’t responsible journalism require news outlets to a) note why professional pollsters discount Zogby Interactive data; and b) also highlight the Gallup numbers with equal enthusiasm?

He was supposed to talk about the Mark Foley scandal---I think he has just a few problems now...

Update: NY Newsday

Rep. Thomas Reynolds is trailing behind his Democratic opponent after he was connected to the scandal involving former GOP Rep. Mark Foley of Florida, according to a poll released Saturday.

The poll, performed by Zogby International for The Buffalo News, showed businessman Jack Davis leading Reynolds 48 percent to 33 percent.

Weeeee... The Bush Bounce.

President Bush’s job approval rating dipped two points in the last three weeks, despite the foiling of an airline terror plot and the adoption of a cease–fire deal between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, a new Zogby International telephone poll shows.

Apparently to Pam from Atlas Shrugs- John and Jim Zogby are the same person, well not really, but who cares. The comment section is a hoot. (correction)- "Go Pamela!!!!" She is one of the big catches for Pajamas Media.

(Or should I say as Sen. Durbin did-Pajamaline-great video)

Incomprehensible demoralization says: "Oh, Pam, keep this up and no one's ever going to buy you that (*cough!*incredibly tacky!*cough!*) Cartier watch on your Amazon Wish List."

If anyone still doesn't believe that John Murtha was speaking for the troops, there's this:

"Seventy-two percent of troops on the ground in Iraq think U.S. military forces should get out of the country within a year, according to a Zogby poll released Tuesday....read on"

President Bush's job approval rating has slipped into a post-holiday funk, again dipping below 40%, a new telephone poll by Zogby International shows....read on

Since I'm in the mood to talk about the Washington Post today, remember this little item when the prospect of doing an impeachment poll angered Richard Morin so much:

December 20, 2005:Naperville, Ill.:Why haven't you polled on public support for the impeachment of George W. Bush?

Richard Morin: This question makes me mad..

Even though they were at the forefront of polling President Clinton just days after the first revelations of Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Can Deborah Howell tell us now how they feel about doing it since this new Zogby poll showed 52 percent of American adults thought Congress should consider impeaching Bush if he wiretapped U.S. citizens without court approval. I know back on November 13, 2005:

Debbie Howell said: "First, there was a swarm to me and to Post Polling Editor Richard Morin asking that The Post do a poll on whether President Bush should be impeached. Whoa. Since we get mail all the time saying that we are biased against Bush or are in his back pocket, why would The Post want to do that?"

I guess because it seems like a good idea. I'd be curious to see the outcome since wiretapping is such a hot button topic right now.