Ben Nelson's Response

[armed and humorous]

ScottC:

No, I wasn't being sarcastic.  I don't know what polls you are talking about, or maybe you're just using hyperbole to try and get your point across.  Probably the most well known poll, at least around here, is the Gallup poll.  You can see the historic record of their presidential polls by going here:  http://www.gallup.com/poll/9442/election-polls-accuracy-record-presidential-elections.aspx

As you may notice, they were only wrong once since 1936 and are generally within a percent or two in accuracy.  They did not show democrats leading in every race for the last 40+ years.

I agree, there are lots of polls, and lots of them are not unbiased, scientific polls.  Those are the ones you may be describing.

I agree, too, the the media is extremely biased and often reports the polls they feel push their agenda.

My point was that if you poll a large, randomly selected population about how they intend to vote, using carefully designed questions and scientific methods, it will reflect the actual voting rather well, regardless of the number of voters who actually go to the polls.

[bkoenig]

I agree, polls such as Gallup that use scientific methods of gathering data are usually fairly accurate.  My wife has worked in the polling industry for years and can talk circles around me on that subject.  There's definitely a science to putting together an unbiased poll that's truly representative of the population at large.  Unfortunately, the polls most people see are the ones that show up on a newspaper's website or some other biased venue.  They usually have a loaded question, and will only be answered by people who care deeply about the subject on one side or the other.

[SBarry]

Ben Nelson is a coward for scheduling this when he did.

Oh no, he is being crafty. Don't show up at noon thinking you will get in. Acorn and SEIU will have busloads of freeloaders brought in by 6 AM so Bennie will get his "fair and impartial concerned citizens" audience. The media will protray this as "Nebraskans wanting health care, not shouting matches"

The audience will be loaded with pre-written questions that Ben already knows the answer to. All he will have to do is remember who to call on in order. One thing is for sure, there will be no direct answers.

[Dan W]

The Lincoln Independent Business Association offered to rent out the Lancaster Event Center for Nelson to hold a larger event, and his staff declined...

 

[SBarry]

That would be to hard to bus a bunch of Acornies that far to pack it full so Joe Six Pack could not attend.

Make it look like everyone is supporting you Ben, the NFOA knows different. God I wish he was reading this, but I know he thinks he is too important to care what Nebraskans think anymore.