Years ago, about the time dinosaurs roamed the earth, I read a book called HOW TO LIE WITH STATISTICS. I’m not even sure the book is still in print, but if you can find it, read it. I mention this in relation to all the polls you are hearing about that predict a landslide for Barack Obama. Obviously, I do not know who will win this election, but I do want to mention some of the things that pollsters do to skew an election. This year the media does not seem to be particularly objective and these tricks are totally in evidence if you know how to look for them.<\/p>\n
Pollsters need to keep their credibility in order to continue getting business. No one remembers what the polls say three weeks before the election. They can be as far off as they want with minimal consequences. How do you skew a poll? You sample more people from one party than from the other. You control the area of the polling and the number of people sampled. As we get closer to the election, the polls will tighten because it is a tight race and no one wants to be horribly wrong. They need their credibility to do the same thing next year! If the pollsters can convince you that the election is lost, you may not vote, and in that case, it may be. My final word is–TAKE HEART!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Years ago, about the time dinosaurs roamed the earth, I read a book called HOW TO LIE WITH STATISTICS. I’m not even sure the book is still in print, but if you can find it, read it. I mention this in relation … Continue reading