After a long history of questionable practices (PDF), including distorting his own poll and hyping bogus Internet polling, pollster John Zogby missed California by about 15 points. Can we stop taking him seriously as a legitimate pollster now?
Update 2/7 9:29 AM: Via Sullivan, Zogby downplays the error:
About California: Some of you may have noticed our pre-election polling differed from the actual results. It appears that we underestimated Hispanic turnout and overestimated the importance of younger Hispanic voters. We also overestimated turnout among African-American voters. Those of you who have been following our work know that we have gotten 13 out of 17 races right this year, and so many others over the years. This does happen.
I love the euphemism that their "pre-election polling differed from the actual results." Well, of course it did -- almost everyone's polls fail to get the exact numbers. But most pollsters don't miss by double digits!
He also, just before the 2004 election, proclaimed definitively that Kerry would win the election on the Daily Show.
Posted by: glenstein | February 06, 2008 at 02:49 PM
Kerry did win the election on the Daily Show. He got 100% of the votes of the host and writers.
Posted by: Rob | February 06, 2008 at 04:02 PM
Let's allocate a few electoral college votes to the Daily Show !
I've got to say I enjoyed seeing both former Press Secretary Tony Snow and former UN Ambassador John Bolton on that show last year.
I wish there was more time devoted to the interviews.
Posted by: Howard | February 06, 2008 at 08:16 PM