A funny thing about polls. One that has Bob McDonnell up big over Creigh Deeds in this year’s governor’s race had its respondents telling them Virginia went to John McCain 52 percent to 43 percent last November. And then the other one had its respondents splitting 52-41 for McCain.
I’m going to check to make sure, but I would have sworn Obama won Virginia in 2008.
I’ll be right back.
…
Yep, he did.
Another funny thing about polls. When they say things they shouldn’t say, like that John McCain won Virginia last year when he lost by seven points, the people who put them together tend to get defensive. Like the folks at Public Policy Polling, whose Republican-skewed poll has McDonnell up on Deeds by a 51 percent-to-37 percent margin.
The skew isn’t a bad poll, to hear the pollsters tell it, but instead a sign of severely dampened spirit among Democrats, to the point where only 42 percent of those who voted for Obama are planning to vote for Deeds in November.
Yeah, that’s the ticket.
More details on the PPP poll are due out tomorrow, not that I’m going to be studying them knowing that they’re so off in the splits already. On to Survey USA, which like PPP uses push-button polling technology that is looked at as unreliable by the likes of the Washington Post and the polling snobs.
(Probably for good reason, as we’re about to see.)
Not only did Survey USA have its respondents telling them that McCain won Virginia by a 52 percent-to-43 percent margin last year, it had the Virginia electorate in general skewing 38 percent Republican, 32 percent Democrat and 29 percent independent.
An indication as to how – its numbers were based on a regional split that somehow, some way gave more voter strength to the Shenandoah Valley than either Northern Virginia or Hampton Roads.
!.
You can’t make this stuff up, people.
Does that put Bobby Mac’s 55-40 lead there in perspective for you, or what?
But hey, if you’re the Deeds camp, you want to be 15 points behind right now. Last time he was way, way back, things turned out OK, if you remember.
– Column by Chris Graham
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