Congress.org has an article out about the use of polls as weapons in politics. The article talks a bit about the history of polls, then goes on to talk about Daily Kos's use of Research 2000 polls.
More after the jump.
The article calls Daily Kos a news blog, not an opinion blog(!), and cites Research 2000 as non-partisan (some other polls are affiliated with political parties, and are mentioned later in the article).
The liberal news blog Daily Kos relies on polling data to bolster its agenda. It uses a nonpartisan polling firm, Research 2000, to conduct polls to complement its analyses.
The Congress.org article does mention what most of those polls are for - comparisons of candidates in assorted political races across the country.
Though most polls on the Daily Kos focus on how candidates are stacking up in the hot races of the day, Research 2000 pollsters often ask of Republican respondents if they believe Barack Obama was born in the United States.
They also mention what many of us regard as the fun part...
When the numbers are on its side, the Daily Kos uses them to criticize Republicans.
Actually, from what I've read here, even when the numbers aren't on our side, we use them to criticize Republicans. If the shoe fits... :-)
It's nice to see Daily Kos mentioned in articles on the Internet, no matter where they are, especially if they're not rabidly screaming that we're a bunch of Commie Nazi Fascist socialist freedom-hating America-hating hummaseckshul anything-I-left-out sub-humans who should go back to our countries of origin. Heh. It's especially nice to see that somebody, somewhere, has noticed that the (non-diary) polls we use are non-partisan and aren't push polls designed to squeeze specific responses out of respondents.
Our analyses are, of course, our own.
As per the article: "I don't do any analysis," said Del Ali, president of Research 2000, the firm that conducts polls for the Daily Kos. "The client pays for the data, and we're not standing over their shoulders saying, 'Hey, this is what you're gonna write.'"
We're now Pew here, but from what I can tell, we try to be fair. We've had plenty of stories and diaries on how to read and interpret polls. Pie has been thrown. Feelings have been hurt. GBCWs have been written. Still, in the end, each of us can read the numbers, read the analyses, and come to our own hopefully-accurate conclusions.
And every now and then, somebody in that big outside world will notice that the Great Orange Satan uses non-partisan non push polls. Oh, YES!
BTW - I apologise if this has already been written about - I didn't see it up anywhere. Also, I have to go to work, so I'll answer comments when I get back.