January 21, 2013 04:43 PM UTC

Thank You Gallup, And Don't Let The Door Hit You On Your Way Out!

• 4 Comments
• by: Davie

Remember those Gallup Polls showing Romney with a slight, but persistent lead? Did you hate it when your GOP acquaintances would quote them to you, confident that Mittens would soon rule? В Well, it turns out their methodology was fatally flawed. В  USA TodayВ just dropped the company so as not to suffer the same embarrassment in 2014.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank the Gallup organization for providing the GOP with a false sense of security, and providing even more motivation to Democratic activists to help get out the vote!

The fact is that Gallup has only pegged the correct winner in 60% of elections since 1976 – which is not much better than a coin flip. That record drops to 25% since 2000. In four elections since 1976 in which the election margin was less than five points, Gallup has not called the right winner.

Apparently, Gallup must be run by Romney supporters, because they adopted his business В tactics as well:

And yet, the most troubling accusations lobbed Gallup’s way came when the justice department filed charges against it
. The suit, brought in 2012, alleges that Gallup submitted $13m in false claims to the US government, by inflating the cost of polling work. These charges include milking the US mint, state department and other organizations.

Pardon any formatting oddities (there are two blockquotes above from the linked article). В I’m just getting used to posting diaries.