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Still,
there appears to be an undercurrent of worry among some polling
professionals and academics. One reason is the wide variation in Obama
leads: Just yesterday, an array of polls showed the Democrat leading by
as little as two points and as much as 15 points. The latest Washington
Post-ABC News tracking poll showed the race holding steady, with Obama
enjoying a lead of 52 percent to 45 percent among likely voters.
Some in the McCain camp also argue that the polls showing the largest
leads for Obama mistakenly assume that turnout among young voters and
African Americans will be disproportionately high. The campaign is
banking on a good turnout among GOP partisans, whom McCain officials
say they are working hard to attract to the polls.
"I have been wondering for weeks" whether the polls are accurately
gauging the state of the race, said Steven Schier, a political
scientist at Carleton College in Minnesota. Borrowing from lingo
popularized by former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Schier
asked what are the "unknown unknowns" about polling this year: For
instance, is the sizable cohort of people who don't respond to
pollsters more Republican-leaning this year, perhaps because they don't
want to admit to a pollster that they are not supporting the "voguish"
Obama?
If so, that could mean the polls are routinely understating McCain's
support. "I have no evidence that this is happening," Schier said, but
he added: "I'm still thinking there's a 25 percent chance that this is
a squeaker race and McCain pulls it out." [comt]
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What
a crock. Pollsters know exactly what they're doing. They
know exactly that Republcans and Democrats turnout evenly to vote, yet
weight their polling toward the democrat. They know exactly that their
polls have a margin of error of 3-4 points, yet consistently use the
democrat upswing. And guess what? Minnesota is in play.
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