Just how wrong does someone have to be to lose their job in Washington, D.C.? … In theory, pollsters should be some of the most accountable people in politics. You can see exactly how right or wrong they are with each campaign. And yet . . .
A pollster is one of those jobs — like a football lineman or an oil-tanker captain — that normal people tend to notice only when one of these specialized professionals messes up. In that sense, 2012 was a banner year for Republican pollsters. Romney may have lost handily in his quest to become president, but he famously thought he was going to win right up until the last minute. …
So why is it that in a time when there is an increasing appetite for data (at least based on how many new data-driven Web sites have sprung up in the past year) that there can be so much bad polling? CONT.
Ben Terris, Washington Post