Number of pollsters with conflict of interest keeps growing

[Marzupialis]

As if we had not had enough pollsters with a dog in this fight,such as We Ask America (R), Mitchell Research (R), Rasmussen (R), PPP (doing polling for the liberal Daily Kos), Zogby (doing polling for ultraconservative Newsmax), we now get a "Susquehanna" poll which finds Obama leading Romney by only 3% among likely voters in Pennsylvania. The catch: The poll was conducted for the Republican State Committee.

I don't believe the race is so tight in this state.

I wish there were less pollsters with a conflict of interest. They are motivated to make their sponsors feel good about the state of the elections. I'm going to stick with Pew, Quinnipiac and other unbiased, unconflicted pollsters with a good track record.

[Warpy]

1. Gallup has been worthless for years due to incorrect weighting.

Rasmussen is a joke. It seems that some of the old standbys like Harris and Ipsos-Reid have gone to commercial polling instead of political polling. We'll have to see if they rejoin the fray later on.

I'm with you, it's Pew and Quinnipac. Most of the others are tainted.

[Arkana]

3. Marist isn't terrible either.

PPP isn't bad, as long as you take into account that they have a slight D tilt.

[progressivebydesign]

2. This is why the only "polls' that matter are the ones we go to to vote on Election Day.

Otherwise, you'll drive yourself mad, and DU will be all hand-wringing, all the time.

I block them out. You have to. There are very few fair ones anymore, and very few that can accurately measure how people will vote, based on our phone habits now.

[a kennedy]

4. Thank you.....

whew, I feel a lot better, I just need people reminding me polls suck. I'm one of the DU people that get's wrapped up in polls......so thanks

[1StrongBlackMan]

5. Does anyone else ...

have a problem with this article's underlying premise ... that who pays for the polling affects the polling results?

The simple solution would be bar the "news media" from reporting on all electoral polling.

When polling results come from the campaigns, it is assumed that the data has been gamed; but when {pick a media outlet} reports polling results, the general populace assumes that the numbers are unspun facts.

[brooklynite]

6. Are you equally prepared to disavow more favorabole polls by PPP?

Personally, I ignore ALL point of time polling, and pay attention only to the trend-lines.

[WI_DEM]

7. PPP most recent poll for 'liberal daily kos' had Obama only leading by 2

Their polls on their own have shown Obama with declining leads in Iowa and New Mexico and other states. PPP, I think, is a pretty reputable pollster.

[brooklynite]

8. Not saying that it's not accurate, just that it potentially also has a COI