Donald Trump would be on track to win a historic landslide in November ā€” if so many US voters didnā€™t find him personally repugnant.

Roughly 53 percent of Americans have anĀ unfavorable opinionĀ of the former president. And yet, when asked about Trumpā€™s ability to handle key issues ā€” or the impact of hisĀ policiesĀ ā€”Ā voters routinelyĀ giveĀ the Republican candidate higher marks thanĀ President Biden.

In aĀ YouGov surveyĀ released this month, Trump boasted an advantage over Biden on 10 of the 15 issues polled. On the three issues that votersĀ routinely nameĀ as top priorities ā€” theĀ economy, immigration, and inflation ā€” respondents said that Trump would do a better job by double-digit margins.

Meanwhile, in aĀ recent New York Times/Siena College poll,Ā 40 percent of voters said that Trumpā€™s policies had helped them personally, while just 18 percent said the same of Biden. If Americans could elect a normal human being with Trumpā€™s reputation for being ā€œtoughā€ on immigration and good at economics, they would almost certainly do so.

Biden is fortunate that voters do not have that option. But to erase Trumpā€™sĀ small but stubborn leadĀ in the polls, the president needs to erode his GOP rivalā€™s advantage on the issues.

  • mwguy@infosec.pub
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    3 months ago

    Wow, hyperbolic polling ā€œdataā€ that is consistently inaccurate

    Citation needed.

      • mwguy@infosec.pub
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        3 months ago

        Did you read that article? Their first example of a polling ā€œmissā€:

        The average poll in the week before election day had Mehmet Oz beating John Fetterman by nearly 1% in Pennsylvania when in reality Fetterman beat Oz by nearly 5%

        Pollsters were actually calling that race a toss up (also 538ā€™s page ). There were several polls that predicted a slim Oz and several that predicted a slim Fetterman. Even the Republican leading pollster that was predicting a 1% the wrong way has a confidence interval of +/- 2.5 and had 4.9% other/undecided factor in the poll.

        People are angry that they canā€™t read polls. Theyā€™re angry that a toss up is just that.

        • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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          3 months ago

          Did you read it? It goes on to describe larger polling errors(14%) that resulted consistently in multiple elections going the opposite way of the polls.

          Polls are consistently inaccurate.

          You can read the whole article instead of the first sentence.

          • mwguy@infosec.pub
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            3 months ago

            The Siena poll found that ā€œindependents, especially women, are swinging to the G.O.P. despite Democratsā€™ focus on abortion rights. ā€¦The biggest shift came from women who identified as independent voters. In September, they favored Democrats by 14 points. Now, independent women backed Republicans by 18 pointsā€“a striking swing given the polarization of the American electorate and how intensely Democrats have focused on that group and on the threat Republicans pose to abortion rights.ā€

            This is the chunk youā€™re complaining about? They didnā€™t even refute the poll they just donā€™t like that data. And thatā€™s after consistently complaining about polls that were marked as toss-ups.

            Like please respond to the first one. Because the polls got Oz vs. Fetterman largely correct and itā€™s the first example of a miss which should be the strongest one.

            • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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              3 months ago

              No, it isnā€™t, and i responded to your first reply four days ago when you originally replied.

              If you are expecting every single pull to be inconsistent by the exact same amount, youā€™re going to be disappointed.

              Some polls are off by 1% some are off by 15% some are off by more.

              Theyā€™re not all from identical elections, and thereā€™s not always an identical number of people voting or people being polled.

              Polls are consistently inaccurate,is the point here.

              • mwguy@infosec.pub
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                3 months ago

                If a pill has a Ā± of 5-7 percent with 90% confidence. And you have ten polls, You would expect at least one to be off by more that 5-7%. What your describing is expected.

                • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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                  3 months ago

                  Right, polls are consistently inaccurate and should not be counted on as foundational predictors of political conclusions.

                  • mwguy@infosec.pub
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                    3 months ago

                    If I tell you that a rocket is going to land withing a 20ft circle 90% of the time and land 9 rockets in the circle and 1 out of it; was I accurate or inaccurate in your mind?