Guys, have you noticed that in almost every opinion poll Rasmussen finds reason to make Freepers happy? (Freepers=blog readers who frequent the right-wing website Freerepublic.com. Terms often used to refer to Republicans in general).

In Gallup, for example, support for the stimulus is steady as it can be since January 11th, even before Obama took over:

This poll stands in sharp contrast with one conducted by Rasmussen less than a week ago, allegedly finding that "37% favor the legislation, 43% are opposed, and 20% are not sure."

But the discrepancy is present not only in the stimulus issue. I have seen it in many other issues as well. I don't know if this is due to the fact that Rasmussen is a partisan Republican hack who once worked for t he right-wing Worldnetdaily.com as a columnist.

Do you remember how Bush's approval by Rasmussen's count was usually around 38-40% while it stood in the low 30's in other polls?

Well, now Obama's approval is 59% there, compared to 65% in Gallup.

Coincidence?

You might say that he uses different wording or methodology, but how is it possible that this different approach ALWAYS gives an edge to the Republican party?

When it comes to election prediction, Rasmussen is accurate, apparently because he cannot distort poll numbers in this case because electoral results can be used as a measuring stick to determine whether or not he was right or wrong.

But in regard to opinion polls, there is no way to ultimately verify the accuracy of a poll. We cannot know for sure, for example, whether Gallup is right, or Rasmussen is right in telling us that support for the stimulus has crumbled as of late.

Rasmussen also tells us today that  "Forty-eight percent (48%) of U.S. voters say that, generally speaking, increased government spending is bad for the economy.

Thirty-five percent (35%) believe more government spending will help the economy, and seven percent (7%) say it's likely to have no impact, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey."

But unless a referendum is conducted on the issue, we will never know whether Rasmussen was right, made this up, or utilized misleading wording in its questioning.

I think someone from the National Council on Polls should closely monitor Rasmussen's practices. His polls might be used by right-wing columnists to unfairly attack Progressive measures that attract broad support from the population.

I do not trust this fellow.