NAILED – AT 6:10 P.M. ET:  One of the great myths circulated by the painstream media is that internet bloggers aren't real journalists, and can't be.  I think that's been disproved several million times.

Today, at Power Line, Johnn Hinderaker practices fine online journalism by nailing the Associated Press, which has been hawking the idea, based on one of its polls, that opposition to Obamacare is weakening:

This Associated Press-GfK poll on health care has gotten a great deal of media attention. Here is how the AP characterizes its own findings:

"As lawmakers shaken by the shooting of a colleague return to the health care debate, an Associated Press-GfK poll finds raw feelings over President Barack Obama's overhaul have subsided."

It appears that what is mostly going on is that the AP-GfK sampled a heavily Democratic group of respondents this month. This is on top of the fact that the survey sampled all adults, not likely voters.

Oh.

Hinderaker publishes the poll details, proving his point.

Democrats and Democrat leaners outnumbered Republicans and Republican leaners by six points, whereas among likely voters in October, Republicans outnumbered Democrats by the same margin. It stands to reason that if you over-sample Democrats, you will get poll data more sympathetic to their policies.

Scott Rasmussen polls on the same subject, and his results, which Hinderaker includes, show continued high opposition to Obamacare. 

The principal difference between this Rasmussen survey and the AP-GfK poll is that Rasmussen surveys likely voters.

They're the people who actually make a difference at the polls.

It is reasonable to assume that Democrats in the press have deliberately promoted the AP-GfK poll in order to deter Republicans from voting for repeal and to encourage Democrats to stick with the administration. It will be interesting to see whether today's Rasmussen survey gets an equal amount of media attention.

COMMENT:  Republicans in Congress understand that any vote to overturn all of Obamacare is symbolic.  What the public wants is a better plan, not no plan.  Republicans must come up to the plate and provide that better plan.  We'll be watching and holding them to account. 

January 17, 2011