A lot of people jumped on the IBD/TIPP poll immediately as a partisan poll. A few people cautioned that it's the pollster and not the sponsoring organization. I mean Obama does well in FoxNews and WSJ sponsored polling, right? Why should a poll from Investor's Business Daily (IBD) be any different? I was one of those people. I thought only starting out at +2% in Obama's favor might have been a blip on the radar: A factor of an overly conservative likely voter screen and their relatively low sampling size over a long period of time. I was wrong. The TIPP poll makes Rasmussen look like a left wing advocacy organization.
I'm naturally cautious when it comes to polling information having gotten burned a few times by making untrue assumptions. So while I remained skeptical about the IBD/TIPP poll I felt I'd give it some time. That was before TIPP Online updated their website.
Look at the front page now: "Are We Ready for Socialism?"
Some of the unbiased questions include:
"Agree or disagree: The U.S. is evolving into a socialist state?"
"Agree or disagree: I believe it is the government's role to redistribute wealth and income?"
"How much do you believe Barack Obama favors the following economic systems?
How about: An economic system that emphasizes private property and free markets? "
Another section asks "Americans on Issues" one of the absolutely most inappropriate question I've seen in a national poll:
"In your opinion, generally speaking is "Black Anger".."
Real - 65%
Fiction - 18%
Not sure - 17%
I also started digging around on TIPP's website. Where you get to see this:
Because of our unbiased and highly accurate polls, TIPP has enjoyed media partnerships with many different industry players, including:
The Investor’s Business Daily
The Christian Science Monitor
Editor and Publisher
Among many others both in TV and print.
Currently, we are working exclusively with the Investor’s Business Daily.
Here we learn that TIPPOnline is the EXCLUSIVE polling partner of IBD. You'd think they might have some motivation to push their agenda and make them happy? TIPP's founder, Raghavan Mayur, is also a frequent contributor to IBD, with some editorial content, as well as polls.
The TIPP/IBD tracker is nothing more than a thinly disguised, ideologically driven, national push poll banking on an above average showing in the last presidential election.