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Wednesday, June 19, 2013 | 5:58 a.m.

Jamie Dupree's Washington Insider

Posted: 1:33 a.m. Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Once Again, The Polls Were Off 

By Jamie Dupree

We talked about it again in recent days, whether the polls would get the margin correct in Pennsylvania.  Most of them did not.  Again.

The exit polls were also wrong, again.  Matt Drudge splashed a huge headline on his site around 6pm that said the polls showed Hillary Clinton leading Barack Obama 52-48.

The race was Too Close To Call according to Drudge.  When the polls closed at 8pm, the networks also dutifully said that there was no winner to report.

That just didn't seem right to me, just like the polls that showed only a six point advantage for Clinton.  I had thought for several weeks that Clinton would do well in this state.

Pennsylvania just seemed too much like Ohio, and in the end, the margin was just like Ohio for Clinton, a 10 point win.

So what's the deal here?  Why can't the polls get this race right?

And why are the exit polls off so much?

Back on the night of March 4th, the exit polls said Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island were all too close to call.  Clinton won Texas by a few points and won easily in the other two.  The exit polls said Obama would win New Hampshire.  He didn't.

The polls have also been wrong the other way, like when they showed a close race in Wisconsin, and then Obama won in a blowout.

So now we look at North Carolina, where Obama has had a very large lead and at Indiana, where Clinton has had a narrow lead in the polls.

Do we believe them?

 

 
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