The Washington Post has finally given up on the pretense of objectivity at this rate.
With poll numbers that shock even the most jaded politicos in Virginia, not only did the WaPo poll show Trump at 33% (Rasmussen Daily Presidential Track Poll shows Trump at 45%), Justin Higgins easily pulls apart the numbers:
Here’s a flashback to the same polling outfit, in conjunction with the Post, giving Democrat loser Tom Perriello a two-point edge in the primary:
With less than one month before the June 13 primary, 40 percent of likely Democratic voters support Perriello, while 38 percent support Northam, a difference that is well within the survey’s range of sampling error. Perriello is a former congressman, and Northam is the state’s lieutenant governor.
Missing within the margin of error would be one thing, but Northam went on to win the Democratic nomination by twelve points. The Post missed by 14 points, and missed to the left.
In 2013, in the last poll commissioned by the Post, they had Terry McAuliffe up by 12 points. He would win that race by a narrow 2.5% margin. They missed by nearly ten points, and again, missed to the left.
Back of the envelope math? Gillespie is down by what — one point? — if you get the Trump numbers straightened out.
Even UVA’s Larry Sabato was chagrined:
New WaPo poll on VA GOV has Northam over Gillespie by 53-40 (likely voters). Much bigger than recent private D polls. Skepticism warranted.
— Larry Sabato (@LarrySabato) October 5, 2017
So let’s review:
- Confederate statues didn’t work;
- Enron Ed didn’t work;
- $15 minimum wages didn’t work;
- Obamacare expansion didn’t work;
- Single payer healthcare isn’t working;
- Flip flopping on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline didn’t work;
- Ducking debates didn’t work;
- Spamming voters with text messages didn’t work;
- Refusing to meet with law enforcement didn’t work…
What’s left for the Northam campaign to do but go back to the mainstream media and Plan A — claim to have a (false) double digit lead over Gillespie.
