Zogby

This country has tried the prohibition experiment on marijuana for too long now and it’s time to end it. We now see that sentiment being relayed amongst public polls:

A new Zogby poll commissioned by the conservative-leaning O'Leary Report has found 52 percent voter support for treating marijuana as a legal, taxed, regulated substance. The survey, published as a full-page ad in today's issue of the political newspaper The Hill, polled a sample of 3,937 voters weighted to match the 2008 presidential outcome -- 54 percent Obama voters and 46 percent McCain supporters.

And this is the results with all those misleading anti-marijuana ads they play on TV. People know the truth that marijuana is much safer than drinking alone. Perhaps we can see some real change in the near future.

That push poll John Zogby did to “show Obama voters didn’t know who they were voting for”, well he is outraged anyone would question him and won’t do the same poll with Republican voters:

Pollster John Zogby has rejected a conservative commentator’s offer to sponsor a poll to test the knowledge of people who voted for John McCain.

The commentator was proposing to mirror a poll of Obama voters that caused a political uproar when it suggested that Obama supporters didn’t know what they were voting for.

But now catch this part:

This week, Ziegler proposed to pay for a similar poll of McCain voters. But Zogby told Politico he will not do the poll the same way.

“I am happy to do a poll of both Obama voters and McCain voters, with questions that I formulated and sponsored either by an objective third party or by someone on the left, in tandem with a John Ziegler on the right — but poll questions that have my signature,” Zogby said.

“I believe there was value in the poll we did,” Zogby added. “I also believe it was not our finest hour. This slipped through the cracks. It came out critical only of Obama voters.”

So Zogby admits there was problems with the poll, but doesn’t state why or is willing to redo it in a way that would reflect both groups of voters. It sounds like he is also laying ground rules to have opposing views in his polls – something he flat out refused to do in the Ziegler poll.

I got an idea. John Zogby needs to become like the Republican Party – insignificant. Media outlets need to stop commissioning him to do their polls, and instead look for companies that won’t partake in push-polling as a way to deceive public opinion. Perhaps Zogby should go ahead and end up in the abyss with the auto industry.

It’s no secret that the Liberal blogosphere helped propel the Democrat out of the abyss of minority status in our government. Could the right wing blogosphere do the same for Republicans? Well if they continue following the path of idiocracy and taking push polls as gospel, then that won’t be likely unless America gets hit by a big case of the stupids.

Case in point; a push poll by a wingnut website HowObamaGotElected.com, who commissioned Zogby to run it. Nate Silver had an interview with the person behind the poll, and you can tell by their obscenity riddled, highly touchy responses that one of the best people in the world of studying polls got under the skin of this wingut.

~~lt;p>Of course the right wing blogs are taking this poll as gospel, looking at it as the holy grail of electorate knowledge today. Ignore the fact that the same can be argued from this side. Look at the huge number of people who thought Obama was a Muslim, especially in ruby red Texas. Now think about how the same people on the right kept trying to push that story and wanted the media to push it, along with a story that Obama spent most of adult life in a Christian church with Jeremiah Wright. Wait! He’s a Muslim, but has gone to a Christian church all this time? Yeah – that’s the stupidity of the right I am talking about.

So can the right wing blogs help lift the Republicans out of minority status believing such things? I doubt it. Think about this. The Republicans have done nothing but dismiss polls over the years, especially on important issues such as abortion, energy policy, the Iraq war and the economy. They quickly dismiss them all as being inaccurate, yet they now hold on to some highly tainted push poll as gospel. Polls, love them or hate them, is the best method we have of gaining the pulse of the American people. It has also been the only real way that the American populace could let their voices be heard by our leaders. Hopefully that will be changing with our new President.

If the Republicans want to recover and their blogs be able to take credit then they need to get rid of the tinfoil hats once and for all. They need to push on fact, not the epitome of why polls can be skewed anyway you want. But if the right wing blogs become the last great hope of the Republican party, then they are doomed. They have no hope because America just woke up from eight years of stupid. They also need to really consider the fact that they are taking a poll as gospel done by the very same company that said “McCain leads Obama by 1 point” three days before the election. We all know how wrong that one was. </p>

(Dave Neiwert has much more on this)

Break out the big font - here's Drudge's headline:

ZOGBY: MCCAIN MOVES INTO LEAD 48-47 IN ONE DAY POLLING

And then here is what he says about it:

ZOGBY SATURDAY: Republican John McCain has pulled back within the margin of error... The three-day average holds steady, but McCain outpolled Obama 48% to 47% in Friday, one day, polling. He is beginning to cut into Obama's lead among independents, is now leading among blue collar voters, has strengthened his lead among investors and among men, and is walloping Obama among NASCAR voters. Joe the Plumber may get his license after all...

Of course these one day polls are always so unreliable and that's why you never see them out there. Nate Silver has already busted Drudge's latest wet dream with his awesome analysis.

A new Reuters/C-Span/Zogby poll, which was released today, has some very good news in it:

With less than two weeks before the November 4 election, Obama leads McCain 52 percent to 40 percent among likely voters in the latest three-day tracking poll, which had a margin of error of 2.9 points.

The biggest part of this is coming from Independents now going more for Obama:

And independent voters, who have been the target of intense campaign efforts by both sides, have now swung behind Obama by a 30-point margin, 59 percent to 29 percent.

That margin is huge and I wonder how much of it is reflective of Powell's endorsement.

This is possible the most telling set of numbers:

Obama holds a 6-point lead among men, 48 percent to 42 percent, while white voters -- who had been among McCain's core support groups -- now only back McCain by a 2-point margin.

McCain's finding out the hard way that this nation isn't full of a bunch of racists like McCain wants. People worry more about leadership and the direction of the country than they do skin color.