The Al Franken Senate campaign: How to sit still in the polls — and win

In politics as in the intensive care unit, a flat line is usually a sign that something bad is happening. At the moment, however, I’m looking at the essentially flat — actually slightly declining — arc of Al Franken’s polling performance in the Minnesota US Senate race, and that line describes a very different story: the transformation of Franken from also-ran to frontrunner without ever budging more than a couple of points in poll standings.

How did this happen?

North Dakota: Third poll in a week has presidential race tied

For the third time this week, a new poll has the presidential race in North Dakota neck-and-neck, prompting RealClearPolitics and Pollster.com to move the state into the tossup category.

Another poll shows dead heat in North Dakota

A fresh North Dakota poll released Thursday shows Barack Obama leading John McCain by 3 points, 44 percent to 41 percent, within the poll’s 4.4 percent margin of error. A poll released Monday by The Forum newspaper…

Why the 20-point spread in KSTP, Strib Minnesota polls? They’re BOTH outliers

What the recent Star Tribune and KSTP polls lack in coherence when placed together, they make up in symmetry: In both races measured, SUSA and PSRA are exactly 19 points apart in their margin spreads (McCain +1/Obama +18, Coleman +10/ Franken +9).

So what gives?

Wily Fox 9 warps results of AP Yahoo poll on voters’ racist views

Fox 9 News anchor Marni Hughes asked the question Sunday night: What role will race play in the November election? Her answer came via an AP Yahoo poll released over the weekend that focused on Democratic voters’ racial attitudes. Fox 9 ran with that angle, downplaying what the poll said about non-Dems’ even more widely-held views. But the pollsters share blame for shortfalls of their own.

Big Ten Poll: Obama has narrow lead in Minnesota

The Big Ten Battleground Poll of the eight states that are home to the eleven universities in the Big Ten conference shows competitive races within the margin of error in all but Illinois.
More details, plus video, below…

Palin popularity plummets: a 21-point point swing in one week

In the week since Sarah Palin’s first major interview aired on ABC, her popularity has taken a dramatic tumble. Per this week’s CBS/New York Times poll, “Obama leads McCain 54 percent to 38 percent among all…

A surge of his own: Obama rebounding in the polls

Whether it’s a matter of a) heightened economic fears, b) Obama/Biden’s newly aggressive tack, c) Palin fatigue, or d) all of the above, Barack Obama has seen his polling fortunes tick upward this week. Pollster.com’s national survey-of-surveys captures…

Obama widens lead in Minnesota

While Republicans are conducting their convention business in the Twin Cities, they may want to take a moment and attempt to woo a few more Minnesota voters on John McCain’s behalf. A new Time/CNN poll of Minnesota…

The polls: If there’s a Biden bounce, it’s backwards

Some public opinion numbers pertaining to the Joe Biden pick: In the CNN/Opinion Research poll released yesterday–the first survey taken entirely after the selection of Biden as Barack Obama’s running mate–McCain and Obama are tied 47-47 in a…