Retiring Guy's Digest: GET ME REWRITE: Trafalgar leaves deep and lasting stain on polling profession with off-the-charts dreadful performance in 2022 midterms

Friday, February 17, 2023

GET ME REWRITE: Trafalgar leaves deep and lasting stain on polling profession with off-the-charts dreadful performance in 2022 midterms

Headline: New York Magazine, 10/14/2022

Cahaly was a driving force in pushing a 'red wave' narrative in the lead-up to the 2022 midterm elections.

Their system is based on a model and numbers, and mine is based on understanding people. The biggest single thing is that a 25-, 40-, 60-question poll — when you’re trying to go deep down and understand issues, that can be a very effective tool. But asking 20 or 30 questions to get a horse race right is a joke. Average people will not participate. You will oversample college-educated people. You will oversample people who have lots of free time after a nine-to-five workday and not people who have various blue-collar jobs with strange schedules.

There he goes again!

Breitbart, 2/15/2015

When 1,092 respondents were asked their opinion for a Convention of States Action/Trafalgar Group poll, 78.8 percent said they were more likely to do business with a company that stayed politically neutral and tolerated viewpoints of employees and customers across the board.

Other right-wing wacko garbage pickers who trumpeted this nonsense include the Washington Times and the Daily Caller.

More Trafalgar fantasy polls:

January 2023

RULE #1: Never take a Trafalgar poll at face valve (RNC chair election edition). (1/27/2023)

RULE #1: Never take a Trafalgar poll at face valve (Border security edition). (1/27/2023)

RULE #1: Never take a Trafalgar poll at face value (RNC edition). (1/26/2023)

Day 61 of Robert C. Cahaly's self-imposed exile. (1/7/2023)

FiveThirtyEight reports Trafalgar poll with a straight face. (1/6/2023)

December 2022

In a year when conservative pollsters tried to drive the election narrative, Politico sez "HOORAY " for polls. (12/31/2022)
Rule #1: Never cite a Trafalgar poll to bolster your argument. (12/24/2022)

November 2022

And then there were those Trafalgar fantasy polls. (11/21/2022)