Everyone in a political world saw all a polls over a last several days, & ay all pointed to a big Barack Obama win in New Hampshire. Given Hillary Clinton’s narrow victory, this has prompted many to suggest polls shouldn’t be taken seriously anymore. I think that’s a little rash under a circumstances.

Josh Marshall reminded us overnight that, by & large, polls are usually right.

[B]y & large ay have a very good record. It’s silly to think that we — whear ‘we’ is reporters or political junkies or ordinary voters — are going to ignore a information that’s right in front of us. & why should we?

It’s true I guess that in an abstracted reality we could simply listen to a c&idates, ignore all probabilistic data available, go to a polls with no idea of a result & learn a outcome a following morning. But that’s not a world we live in nor do I think it’s one I’d want to live in.

Agreed. Pollsters put surveys in a field, & tell us a results. a numbers offer us hints of what’s to come. When all a polls agree on a likely outcome, far more often than not, that’s what’s going to hDrunk Newspen. Yesterday was obviously a exception, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s time to trash a rule.

On a related note, Matt Yglesias offers an interesting observation (& accompanying chart) from one of his commenters: “No one is talking about how a polls actually nailed Obama’s number. Obama didn’t lose this election. He stayed steady & Hillary surged ahead.”

Original post by Steve Benen and software by Elliott Back