This week, professional boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., tweeted on the success of New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin, proclaiming "Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he's Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don't get the same praise."...

Mitt Romney's Iowa victory and his subsequent polling numbers in New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Florida suggest that likely Republican voters have softened their concerns over the Massachusetts health care legislation (a.k.a., "Romneycare") he signed into law.

Romney has been able to make the case that he has no problem...

With the coming tsunami of 2012 election season polls, it's always good to play Monday morning (or Wednesday afternoon) quarterback.

My read of the data suggests there were many dynamics in the Iowa electorate not being captured by polls taken in the final week before caucus night. Mitt Romney,...

There have been several stories which suggest that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should be the Democratic nominee for president in 2012. More curiously, there are stories which imply she could win a hypothetical Democratic primary versus Barack Obama, or general election versus nearly...

While former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has been a staple in GOP presidential campaigns for at least the past five years he has yet to sway a majority of Republican that he's "the one" for them. On at least three indicators of candidate preference among self-reported Republicans Romney's...

With the 24 hour news cycle it's easy to understand why many stories are forgotten and some are never told. This is especially true with regard to poll results. Almost every politico and news channel will cite a set of poll findings to lead or support a narrative, but they...

Polls are typically associated with political issues, candidates, and public behaviors, but there's also "politics" associated with reporting poll results. If there's one thing the public should denounce it's bad poll reporting because it leads to false information, a potentially false consensus, and lower trust in the source of the...

I am a professor of political science and international relations, but I'm also a veteran of two wars (Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom) with 20 years of service in the Army. Over the course of my service I reviewed tens of thousands of military personnel files, and at least 25...

The pundits who thought Delaware Senate Republican candidate Christine O'Donnell was ever doing well among the state's electorate were sadly mistaken from the jump. Not only did she performed less than admirably in her debate performances, she mishandled her media relations, fought the state and national Republican Party organizations, and...

I am among the strongest advocates of polling, but, I'm dismayed by shallow headlines that lead what might actually be pretty interesting work. So, in line with the "restoring sanity" theme for the weekend, I thought I'd try to bring some perspective on how polls can offer much more "reality"...

Over the past 48 hours, two competing polls in Delaware have provided confusing information to the state's electorate and the nation in general. One telephone poll of 797 likely Delaware voters, conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU), October 20 - 26, shows Democrat Chris Coons with...

In the aftermath of Juan Williams' firing from his NPR contract, many public commentators have taken sides on whether he should have been allowed to express his personal sentiments about Muslims, or been fired.

Speaking to Fox News' Bill O'Reily, Williams said the following, "Look, Bill, I'm...

The first sentence of the first commercial for the Republican candidate for Delaware's U.S. Senate says, "I'm not a witch." And then the rest of the commercial, including O'Donnell's appearance, the background music, and the setting all fail to get the "witch" thing out of our minds.

This week's NBC New/Wall Street Journal Survey of 1,000 adults (margin of error +-3.1%) provides some great data for political conversation. However, given the favored narrative about how bad things are in America, you're unlikely to see some of the more eyebrow-raising nuggets in the data.

Here are...

After last week's CNN poll highlighting President Obama's "all-time" lowest job approval the public was bombarded with stories and headlines about how poorly the president was performing.

Since then, many polls have shown the President's approval rating as anywhere from 3% to 6% points higher; all...

It's amazing how many spurious headlines come out about the President's poll numbers. With all the negativity around the job approval ratings one might assume that the President is among the worst politicians around these days.

Media figure heads and writers rarely put these numbers in any meaningful context...

We are now knee deep in headlines using the all too famous "horse race" poll question; to paraphrase: "if the election were held today, who would you vote for?" The results are broadcast and reported across many different mediums, and the goal is to shed light on the competitiveness of...

It's not surprising there are so many polling organizations these days. The 24 hour news cycle demands fresh and exciting information to share with the public. Polls provide much of this drug. Yet, consumers of poll data should hold a healthy skepticism about the popular interpretations of poll numbers presented...

Christine O'Donnell's win over the long tenured U.S. Representative Mike Castle, 53% to 47% (+6% points), might have been a shocker to most, but what really happened, and what most observers missed, was that turnout was higher than normal in lower Delaware (Kent and Sussex Counties), and average in upper...