WJW’s Kredo Debunks Morris’ “Partisan” Poll

Jordan Rohde — July 7, 2011 – 2:39 pm | Polls | Republicans Comments (1) Add a comment

Washington Jewish Week’s Adam Kredo criticized Republican strategist Dick Morris’ recent poll for being highly flawed in its methodology. In particular, Kredo pointed out that the survey was biased, phrased strangely, and partisan, making the results inaccurate.

Kredo expressed his concerns about the poll’s methodology:

All signs indicate, thus far, that the poll is a completely partisan exercise devoid of scientific objectivity.

Up to this point, Morris has declined to fully explain his results, including the questions he asked and how he deciphered these numbers. I asked Morris’s PR representative repeatedly to send me a copy of the poll’s methodology, cross tabs, questions and other relevant information, but haven’t been provided a single item.

That, in itself, is the first major issue.

Prominent polling agencies, such as Gallup, which recently released its own poll on Obama’s approval rating in the Jewish community, typically share their methodology, which is a standard practice. By doing this, they give nerds like me an inside look at their approach. Though I could quibble with any number of conclusions drawn from the data in the Gallup poll, for instance, I can’t begin to get a sense of where Morris is coming from.

I’ll say it again: There’s no serious description of his methodology or a list of the questions he asked. This is critical.

He also raised other important questions that leave readers wondering about the validity of Morris’ poll:

How did Morris determine a person’s Jewishness?

How many people did he reach over the phone, and how many via the Internet?

How diverse were the respondents? Where do they live? How old are they? What is their party affiliation? Etc… (These are just a few of the questions he leaves unanswered.)

Other so-called bellwether marks of objectivity are also missing.

He concluded by debunking Morris’ claim that “if the election were held today, President Barack Obama would get only 56 percent of the Jewish vote against a generic Republican candidate”:

Putting Obama’s policies aside for a moment, it’s worthwhile to note that this poll puts the president up against an unknown challenger. It seems problematic to ask someone, particularly Jews, whether they’d vote to reelect Obama or a so-called ‘generic Republican.’

Putting Obama—a real politician with a record and viewpoints—up against a fantasy candidate we know nothing about is all but meaningless.

Need I also mention that Morris’s most recent book is a rallying cry against the Obama administration? 

Look, a pollster doesn’t have to be an entirely objective observer, but his or her poll should be opened to public scrutiny.

Observed a Jewish Democrat, who was, surely enough, disgusted by the poll: ‘Anyone who represents these numbers as anything short of a Republican wet dream of what the Jewish vote will be on Election Day is a fraud.’

Click here to read more of Kredo’s analysis, including his take on Morris’ other biased questions.

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