Polls taken early in the election season are a most interesting phenomenon. The media loves them, while some think they are a waste of time. The record shows that early surveys can tell us a lot about where a race will end up in the case of midterm House and […] Read more »
Video: Free Research Isn’t Free
Darrell Bricker, Global CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs, discusses what journalists should know about ‘free’ polls. Read more »
2012: The year in graphs and gifs
Has this ever happened to you? Your curmudgeonly uncle Rip wanders up into the mountains around the New Year, goes missing, gives everyone a good scare, and then emerges, as if from a night’s sleep, a year later. After all the rejoicing, you have to explain to him everything that […] Read more »
My 2012 polling predictions with hindsight: a few mea culpas
The new year is nearly upon us. This past year, I’ve contributed a fair share of columns that I think were quite good, but I’ve also written some columns that could have been better. I believe that any good analysts must learn from his or her errors. So here, without […] Read more »
Best year in Washington: Nate Silver
… Every election cycle turns out its stars — likely and unlikely — and there’s no question that Silver and his FiveThirtyEight blog for the New York Times shone the brightest in 2012. For most of the campaign, Silver toiled, if not in obscurity, than in the insular world of […] Read more »
Statistical Habits to Add, or Subtract, in 2013
In the year ending Monday, we saw some gains in statistical savvy. … The growing importance of statistical analysis is set to be a theme of next year, too, with more than 150 professional organizations worldwide, including the American Statistical Association, designating 2013 as the International Year of Statistics. All […] Read more »