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Nate Silver is conducting a propaganda campaign on behalf of Obama. He is not even close to being an honest pollster. See http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/ h

Nate Silver is conducting a propaganda campaign on behalf of Obama. He is not even close to being an honest pollster. See http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/ http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/ (long post, search for "silver" in the text)

jedc 18y ago
A- He's not polling, he aggregates publicized polls B- He doesn't claim that he's not biased in his commentary. C- His numbers come from polls alone. While he could potentially skew through manipulating an algorithm, his results to date have shown that he's done much better than the pundits.
jonknee 18y ago
He has been open with his support for Obama. But he's a numbers guy, I don't see where his math is biased. Likewise, he's a Cubs fan but his baseball research isn't slanted towards the Cubbies. Your link just says because Nate Silver talks about Obama in his blog the site is a propaganda tool. People don't visit for the blog, they visit for the numbers and research. Personally I think it would be the other way around, if he were also a popular Obama blogger but did FiveThirtyEight anonymously that could be considered sinister (it still wouldn't be unless the model was proven wrong, but there would be a perception of deception). I've seen him a couple times on HDNET and he's extremely clever. I'll be watching him tonight instead of the hacks they put up on the major networks.
- gamble 18y ago
  I find it informative to compare Silver's projections with the Real Clear Politics averages. RCP is a group project, but it's pretty clear that their editorial views skew heavily toward the conservative end of the spectrum. Assuming either is biased, I figure that Obama can't be doing any worse than RCP is projecting or much better than FiveThirtyEight.
jfarmer 18y ago
He's not a pollster, he's a guy who analyzes other people's polls. And how is he being dishonest? It's not like he's hiding his support for Obama. The numbers are right or they aren't. We'll see how close the election really is and how his predictions match up with the pollsters.

jedc 18y ago

A- He's not polling, he aggregates publicized polls B- He doesn't claim that he's not biased in his commentary. C- His numbers come from polls alone. While he could potentially skew through manipulating an algorithm, his results to date have shown that he's done much better than the pundits.

jonknee 18y ago

He has been open with his support for Obama. But he's a numbers guy, I don't see where his math is biased. Likewise, he's a Cubs fan but his baseball research isn't slanted towards the Cubbies. Your link just says because Nate Silver talks about Obama in his blog the site is a propaganda tool. People don't visit for the blog, they visit for the numbers and research. Personally I think it would be the other way around, if he were also a popular Obama blogger but did FiveThirtyEight anonymously that could be considered sinister (it still wouldn't be unless the model was proven wrong, but there would be a perception of deception). I've seen him a couple times on HDNET and he's extremely clever. I'll be watching him tonight instead of the hacks they put up on the major networks.

gamble 18y ago
I find it informative to compare Silver's projections with the Real Clear Politics averages. RCP is a group project, but it's pretty clear that their editorial views skew heavily toward the conservative end of the spectrum. Assuming either is biased, I figure that Obama can't be doing any worse than RCP is projecting or much better than FiveThirtyEight.

jfarmer 18y ago

He's not a pollster, he's a guy who analyzes other people's polls. And how is he being dishonest? It's not like he's hiding his support for Obama. The numbers are right or they aren't. We'll see how close the election really is and how his predictions match up with the pollsters.