I am a Floridian and was polled on 10/26 by Quinnipiac/NYT/CBS.
Needless to say, I was anxiously awaiting the results of the poll that were released this morning and very pleased to see the numbers.
I was a little curious what the reaction would be from the right wing, flat-earth crowd, so I ventured over to RedState and FreeRepublic.
RedState, as of this morning, didn't have much to say. The Freepers, however, were in full denial mode (the comments over there are hilarious, if you have the stomach for it). Anyway, I thought I would take this opportunity to correct some of their more extreme non-reality-based assertions.
Here are some of the nuttier comments from freeperland:
"This push poll group was Set up by these left wing media operations to cook up dem party push polls !"
"There will be steam coming out of my ears all morning until I can listen to Rush tear this poll apart and expose their purpose as manufacturing a fake Zero comeback."
"fag boy Nate Silver is up to 77.4% chance of obama victory"
"CBS polls are unabashed propaganda. I think they are out there just to skew Rasmussens composite polls."
"Pay attention to Rasmussen, ignore the rest."
"O is losing FL so bad many respectable polling outfits have withdrawn, but he’s up there? Nope."
"They're throwing up the "Hail Mary" pass now."
(the reality, after the fold)
THE FACTS:
I have never been polled before for a political campaign. Ever. I do have a landline, but they contacted me on my cell phone. In fact they called 2 times the day before and did not leave a message. I wouldn't have answered the third time they called (I generally let unknown calls go to voicemail), but I was curious and had looked up the number on Google, so I knew it was Quinnipiac and was looking forward to getting their call.
One of the first things the pollster said was that my number was randomly selected. He then verified that I was registered to vote in the State of Florida.
There was no "push polling" at all. It was not a robo-call. I talked to an actual pollster who was very neutral and professional. He asked the questions - about the presidential race, party affiliation, voting frequency, senate race, other demographics (income, race, gender), etc. There were probably 50 questions or so (it was a 12 1/2 minute phone call! ). Most of the questions were rated on a 4 or 5 point scale, as I recall.
It was a good experience and I was glad to participate. I don't know their methodology for selecting participants, but there is no reason for me to question their accuracy based on my experience. Unless Republicans/Rmoney voters are somehow less inclined to participate when contacted, I don't see how this poll could be anything but a true representation of the electorate.
NOW LET'S GET OUT THE VOTE AND WIN FLORIDA! (AND VIRGINIA. AND OHIO. AND NORTH CAROLINA. AND WISCONSIN... )