Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll: 42-42

[Smash255]

This is when most other polls showed Gore as up by 2%-3% margins.

really?  Most polls had Bush up.

http://www.ncpp.org/poll_perform.htm
http://www.pollingreport.com/2000.htm

[Smash255]

Not to "rag" on Fox, since I'm independent and try to play nice and non-partisan on this board, but they are generally thought to have a conservative leaning.  And I have noted in the past three years that they USUALLY (not always, but usually) show Bush with a better approval rating than most other polls.  So, I not only wonder about their methodologies, but I wonder if they also threw Bush-leaner states into the "Battleground", like Arizona, Nevada, Arkansas, Missouri, Colorado, Louisiana, etc... some of which (like LA and MO) are more than just slight leans.  Those are states Kerry COULD pick off, but if he does, the race has probably been long since over, since it means he'd have probably already wrapped up FL, PA, and OH.

I'm not saying the poll is certainly wrong.  I'm just always skeptical of the Fox/OD polls.  They have notoriously leaned, oddly, the same direction many accuse their broadcasts of leaning.

In case you think I've hit my head...

Fox/OD Bush approval 5/19 = 48%
Newsweek 5/14 = 42%
Time/CNN 5/13 = 46%
Zogby 5/13 = 42%
CBS 5/11 = 44%
CNN/USA Today/Gallup 5/9 = 46%
Pew 5/9 = 44%

7 polls in the last 10 days.  Fox/OD shows the highest approval rating.  Their early April poll was similar, though Newsweek was even and Gallup actually higher.  Early February (not as many March polls to compare)?  Time/CNN was the only one higher, and barely.  Fox/OD always leans pro-Republican... whether intentional or not, I won't debate that... but the fact is, they do.

As I provided in a link to my post above Newsweek in 2000 last poll had Bush up by 2

First, Zogby has a real problem with accuracy.  Of the major polls in 2002, he had far and away the highest margin of error and far and away the highest wrong prediction.

Second, Newsweek has been a bad joke for years.  It consistently slants its polls to the lefft both by sample and other means.

Third, the other results are all within margin of error.

Fourth, Bush took a real barrage of hits from the liberal media which would have you believe that the only news was the Iraqi prisoners weren't treated well and that Bush was somehow responsible for that ill treatment.  The people who understandably were upset with what happened in the prison have since come to realize that the media is overplaying its hand and appreciates that Bush has not been panicked by the media attacks.