CO: Rasmussen: Obama ahead of McCain by 2%

[Alcon]

Not only is Verily right, but it's mind-numbingly unnecessary.  I only like question lead-ins on issues that are very technical.  Offshore drilling is not.  I don't really know what Scott's doing (and on his Florida poll, the question nearly sounded like a push poll)

I don´t think it´s a push poll: The first question is about Bush's approval rating, the second about the Presidential match-up and then the other questions about off-shore drilling. It´s not likely that after a person chose Obama in the presidential race and then heard that McCain favors oil drilling, so that he can change his mind to favor McCain in the presidential race. I don´t think Rasmussen would allow this. The situation would be different though, if the questions were asked prior to the Presidential race and the question order would be different in his online release ...

It wasn't a push on the presidential race, I know.  However, on the Florida poll, he asked this question and identified which candidate supports what.  It was as close as you can come to a partisan push poll on that issue as you can get (without saying "McCain supports low oil prices and Obama doesn't") without risking professional ethics.

[Cashcow]

Thank god Alcoun the poll critique extraordinaire is here to tell us what's really going on. I, too, aspire to someday be on a first-name basis with Scott Rasmussen.

[Alcon]

Thank god Alcoun the poll critique extraordinaire is here to tell us what's really going on. I, too, aspire to someday be on a first-name basis with Scott Rasmussen.

You've slept with him so much and he still won't let you use his first name?  How humiliating for you.

[King]

What kind of a poll is this? The majority of the questions are phrased in a slanted manner. I've thought more recently that Rasmussen is a conservative leaning pollster. Here's the proof.

If they are so conservative leaning, then explain why they have been one of the most accurate pollsters this season.

What does a "conservative leaning" have to do with the primary season?

That aside, were they even that accurate (not quite sure)?

Here:

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/search/label/pollster%20ratings

That's pretty darn accurate.

That ranking also has ARG ahead of Gallup.

[Alcon]

That ranking also has ARG ahead of Gallup.

Gallup is a horrible state pollster, and has released fewer polls, so their result is more volatile.

[classical liberal]

nah the poll was certainly not purposely to be a push poll, I jsut thought the way it was sloppy. The way the article was written up about the FL poll, it seemed like the quesitoning could have scewered the results. That could have just been the article and not the poll itself, since I can't access the polls and question order.   It seems though based on other polls that this may have influenced a slight number of people say 2% or so (which woould swing things 4 points for a canidate0.  So you know average em out like RCP does, and it might make sense.  I HIGHLY doubt either candidate is going to win by double digits. 

If anyone has the poll questions and order I would be happy to read it.

My understanding was that they asked the head to head, then the drilling question (which was the only possibly push question), then the head to head again and found that before the drilling question it was 47-39 for McCain, while after the drilling question it was 49-38 for McCain.

If there is any systematic error in Rassy, its caused by asking about Bush right before asking about November.  Sub-tabs like that should be measured after the top-line number.