I was reading this morning's Chicago Tribune, when I found this cute
little nugget about our favorite President and his favorite Senator from the Nutmeg State:
Apparently, the polling firm, both had hired - DataUSA - made up quite a bunch of data, and now the shit's hitting the fan for them.
More on the flip, and what this means...
So the AP, via the Trib, had this to say:
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- The owner of DataUSA Inc., a company that conducted political polls for the campaigns of President Bush, Sen. Joe Lieberman and other candidates, pleaded guilty to fraud for making up survey and poll results.
How they exactly manipulated the data, from the DoJ Indictment(pdf)
12. It was part of the conspiracy that the defendants directly and indirectly, instructed employees to alter and falsify the gender of the interviewees in order to meet job quotas and deadlines.
13. It was part of the conspiracy that the defendants altered and falsified, and caused to be altered and falsified, the political affiliation of the interviewees in order to meet job quotas and deadlines.
snip
15. It was part of the conspiracy that the defendants
modified and caused to be modified the survey script by altering the source code to eliminate questions and undesired data in order to meet job quotas and deadlines.
Other than saying that this shows both Bush and Lieberman's bad judgement, Lieberman's campaign will inevitably use its "internal polls" to prove that he's crushing that "insurgent" Ned Lamont...so this confirms what we've known all along - be wary of internal polls.
I wondered what else this company had polluted the political data pool with, but a google search shows the company's website to be...well...in the shape that joe2006.com is often in.