Polling in the Darkness

I've written before about the futility of presidential polls this far out from an election, but I'm awfully intrigued by this Newsweek poll that came out a couple of days ago. It's not just the poll results--among registered voters, Hillary is preferred over McCain, Giuliani, and Romney, while Obama goes down to McCain and Giuliani but defeats Romney--but the fact that nobody (not even Newsweek) is much talking about it. Newsweek even had a cover story on the subject and didn't see fit to mention it. The cover itself states: "Obama and Hillary are already squaring off over 2008. But is America ready for either one?" They mull the question over for a while, mentioning relevant poll findings from time to time, but they never quite get around to bringing up their own poll that says, "Yes, America seems to be ready." Atrios links to a Newsday article that gets a reaction from the horse's mouth: "A Newsweek editor said the poll matchups were not pertinent to the cover story." I don't see how they could be more relevant to the question, let alone not relevant at all, but maybe that's just me.

Chris Bowers looks at the situation, as well, and he's got some questions:

Why does a trusted, established news organization that probably prides itself on adhering to various journalistic standards act as though it does not need to test its questions with actual data that is readily available? Surely, being a responsible journalist means more than just engaging in rhetorical questions, an endless stream of subjectivity, and giving equal time to spin from both sides. I, at least, like to believe that an institution trusted with presenting the public information actually values research and, well, actual information. We haven't sunk into an era where the way to be balanced is to give credence to any take on a political situation, no matter how absurd and in contradiction with actual evidence, have we? We do share a common reality, right?

Well, most of us are unashamed members of the reality-based community. I can't speak for the people at Newsweek, though.