By Selwyn Duke

Should a certain famous saying now be, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies — and polls?” This is a good question not only after the 2016 presidential race, where “expert” prognosticators said Donald Trump had “no path to 270,” but with some recent congressional midterm polls.

Less than two weeks ago, polling outfit Rasmussen — perhaps the most reputable of them all — had the Republicans and Democrats tied on the congressional generic vote. It’s not surprising that this has changed: Rasmussen now has the Democrats up by five points. More curious is the spread between this and many other polls, an example being an ABC/Washington Post survey that gives the Democrats a plus-14 advantage. The nine-point difference is outside of any “margin of error” (a factor in polling); clearly, some very different methodology is being used. And, maybe, abused?

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