On October 3, as Kyle Brennan's at NewsBusters noted the next day, NBC News political director Chuck Tood, appearing on CNBC, characterized presidential polls generated by Scott Rasmussen's polling group as "slop."
The specific quote: "We spend a lot more money polling than Scott Rasmussen does. We spend a lot more money on quality control....I hate the idea that [NBC] polling, which is rigorously done, has to get compared to what is, in some cases, you know, slop." At the time, while many polls, including NBC's (done in conjunction with the Wall Street Journal), were showing Barack Obama with leads of four points or more nationally, Rasmussen was virtually alone Obama barely ahead and occasionally tied with Mitt RomneyChuck was clearly not pleased with that. Someone ought to ask Todd if his evaluation holds based on the results following the jump which were posted at Real Clear Politics early Friday morning.
Here they are:
Well imagine that. Rasmussen's three-day tracking poll was the only one with all sampling done after the Obama-Romney debate, aka Obama's Denver Debacle, showing Obama with a lead. (Late Friday, Rasmussen showed Romney with a one-point lead, the same as the overall RCP average; the polls included in that average ranged from +1 Obama to +4 Romney.)
On October 10, Randy Hall at NewsBusters took note of Scott Rasmussen's response to Todd's sloppy swipe on Megyn Kelly's Fox News show:
Rasmussen ... stated that his poll has shown that the race between President Barack Obama and his Republican opponent, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, has been close for a long time.
"As other polls shift to likely voter models, they're showing the same thing," he stated: the fact that the numbers have been very stable even though other surveys indicated that Obama was in the lead across the country and in the important "swing states" as well.
"Four years ago, we showed virtually no change in the final 40 days of the campaign," Rasmussen said. "We've shown a steady race this time. Both men have been within three points of each other 89 of the last 100 days."
Again referring to Todd's remark, the pollster added that he'd "be happy to compare our work to anybody's."
Kelly observed after Rasmussmen's responses that "I just want people to know all these polls are showing what you are showing." Now it seems that many other polls are swinging in the direction of Rommey, perhaps overly so.
I wonder if Chuck Todd will demonstrate even a little bit of the class Rasmussen displayed in not ramping up the rhetoric and walk back his unprofessional slam of the outfit which was the most accurate final-tally pollster in the 2008 presidential race?
Well, actually I don't. The crickets are already chirping, and I'll be surprised if they ever stop.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
