Last updated on September 10th, 2023 at 02:37 pm
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi pointed out that the CNN poll that looked bad for Biden, but also had some problems.
He’s been a great president. He’s been a great union president and good for jobs. Created 9 million jobs that were lost under COVID. Additional 4 million jobs. So 13 million jobs altogether. Has cut in half inflation. That’s not good enough, we have to go down further, but he has cut the unemployment rate in half. Whether you’re talking about the rescue package, the infrastructure, the infrastructure bill, CHIPS and Science. or you’re talking about the PACT Act for veterans, or your talking about the IRA to save our planet and reduce cost of prescription drugs for seniors, he’s done a remarkable job.
I want to say I saw some poll that didn’t look so good but I also saw it had 59% Republicans as respondents. Well, I think he did very well in a poll with 59% Republican respondents.
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Video:
Former Speaker Pelosi calls out CNN's Biden poll as having 59% Republican respondents, "I want to say I saw some poll that didn't look so good but I also saw it had 59% Republicans as respondents. Well, I think he did very well in a poll with 59% Republican respondents." pic.twitter.com/Lfgr9SQPpr
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) September 8, 2023
Pelosi was talking about the oversampling in the poll, which is a technique that pollsters use, but as I detailed in a recent newsletter, there are many other reasons why the CNN poll should not be taken seriously. For starters, it was a combination of web and telephone polling. The poll did not survey registered voters but instead asked respondents to self-identify their party affiliation, and given that two out of three respondents admitted to lying to pollsters, there is a very good chance that the poll was not measuring what it thought it was measuring.
Pollsters and corporate media that spend a lot of money don’t want to hear it, but political polling is broken in the US. At a time when the country is deeply divided, demographically changing, and new voters are emerging in every cycle that are difficult to find and count, polling is in crisis.
One can agree or disagree about Pelosi’s point on the composition of the CNN poll sample, but the poll like all polling currently has some issues and serves as a reminder of why polls this far from an election should not be taken seriously.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
