… It should come as no surprise to anyone sentient who follows American politics that polling itself is in crisis mode. Any fly-by-night hustler, or any ambitious consultant or institution, can hang up a shingle that says “Acme Polling,” release results, and have a good chance of having the results picked up by hungry news organizations that don’t care whether Acme Polling is any better than the Acme Company that outfitted Wile E. Coyote, much less equivalent to reputable surveys. …
Andy knew everything about the realities and problems with polling. He insisted on rigid standards, and honed the questions and survey formats to be as accurate and as utterly objective as possible. He used some of the resources at Pew to examine what kinds of instruments work and don’t work in surveys, and to keep the industry as honest and competent as possible. There are good pollsters and good polling organizations out there, and a lot of smart and conscientious people in the profession. But no one, frankly, came close to Andy—and no organization even begins to rival the Pew Research Center he built. CONT.
Norm Ornstein, The Atlantic