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THE 1980 PRE-ELECTION POLLS:A REVIEW OF DISPARATE METHODS AND RESULTS
CBS News ^ | 1981 | Warren J. Mitofsky,

Posted on 11/04/2012 7:14:38 AM PST by ScottinSacto

Let's review the events of the final week of the campaign. Exactly a week before election day, the only debate between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan was won by Reagan by a margin of 44 to 36 in a CBS News poll, and by 46 to 34 in the AP poll, and by 2 to i in the widely publicized ABC mock public dial-a-poll. During that same final week, Richard Allen resigned from the Reagan campaign for an alleged misuse of influence during his Nixon White House days. The same day Carter's congressional liaison, Frank Moore, resigned after repeating the unsubstantiated story of the Ayatollah's cancer. On Friday of that week the final economic indicator of the campaign showed inflation still seriously on the rise. And on Sunday morning, November i, the Iranian parliament announced their conditions for freeing the American hostages. Jimmy Carter immediately abandoned campaigning and appeared on national television in the early evening to repeat much of what the public had been hearing all day. It was a week, in effect, with much that could affect the choices made by voters.

(Excerpt) Read more at amstat.org ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: 1980
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Don't recall seeing this posted. Found it looking for 1980 postmortems on polling of the Reagan/Carter race. Three days out from election, the CBS/NYT poll had Reagan up by ONE point. Reagan won by TEN.

Just go vote. Forget 2008, remember 2010 and Chik-fil-a Day. If people waited an hour for a chicken sandwich, do you think they are going to forget to vote? There is too little bandwidth for all the nervous-nellies and eeyoring going on around here.

1 posted on 11/04/2012 7:14:44 AM PST by ScottinSacto
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To: ScottinSacto

” Three days out from election, the CBS/NYT poll had Reagan up by ONE point. Reagan won by TEN.”

That’s the key.

Carter had us in a horrible situation at that time and STILL the pollsters had it “too close to call”.

We look back in hindsight and we wonder how people could have been so stupid to feed such garbage to their viewers. And you have to wonder what was the reaction of those that were old enough to vote back then seeing someone like Reagan TIED with Carter just before an election that netted a landslide so epic that Carter quit before the sun went down.

Dont fret polling. Do your part, keep your nervousness to yourself, Dont spread garbage you get in your email, on blogs, and on Twitter to others, and just show up on Tuesday.


2 posted on 11/04/2012 7:24:06 AM PST by VanDeKoik
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To: ScottinSacto

Obama himself underperformed to what he polled with heavy D turnout. He’ll underperform even worse Tuesday due to a number of polling factors that now skew things in a D direction. The GOP has narrowed the gap on absentees and I expect alot of D crossover as well.


3 posted on 11/04/2012 7:24:11 AM PST by Free Vulcan (Election 2012 - America stands or falls. No more excuses. Get involved.)
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To: VanDeKoik

As always...the MSM will play down GOP leads...and pull for their hometeam.

My brother tells me that on the day before the election in ‘80...he was a student at UW, Madison...he remembers the Wiconsin State Journal healine...”It’s a tossup”. Some tossup.

Reagan won in a huge landslide...may the same be true on Tuesday.


4 posted on 11/04/2012 7:32:18 AM PST by kjo (+)
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Comment #5 Removed by Moderator

What is amazing is how much power the mainstream media could still have by the choice in spinning/covering this Sandy disaster. They COULD make it be Obama’s katrina by simply asking pointed questions and doing certain shots etc etc.

If this were Pres Romney running against a challenger, is there any doubt what the MSM would doing right now?


6 posted on 11/04/2012 7:43:55 AM PST by Crimson Elephant
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To: ScottinSacto
"Three days out from election, the CBS/NYT poll had Reagan up by ONE point. Reagan won by TEN."

Ummm ... we're on the same side, but let's be honest about 1980. Reagan won by 10% but his vote total was only a tad above 50%, at 50.7%. He won by 10 because independent John Anderson had 7% of the vote. These are voters who specifically didn't want Reagan, voters who were extremely displeased with Washington DC, and voters who, had Anderson not been running, would've voted reluctantly for Carter or just stayed home.

None would've voted for Reagan. Why? Because if they were leaning Reagan, they would've known that a vote for Anderson was a vote against Reagan already.

My guess is that without Anderson, the vote would've split 80% Carter and 20% stay at homes.

Curiously, this means a margin for Reagan of about 4 points (51-47), which is about as good as we might expect from Romney.

Implications:

Reagan's revolution didn't really cement until after the economy got worse and then turned around. Regardless of how well we loved him.

Americans don't like to fire their Presidents, even Presidents as incompetent as Obama.

7 posted on 11/04/2012 7:44:07 AM PST by tom h
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To: VRWCRick
Correction!

Hillbuzz

8 posted on 11/04/2012 7:45:28 AM PST by VRWCRick
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To: ScottinSacto

The only one of those stories reported with repetition was Carter racing back to the White House. He tried the same stunt with Kennedy in the spring and won a slew of primaries.

NBC had a great political show on Sunday late night. It was objective and had the Reagan states in blue. I waited for it every week of the campaign. I felt really good after that last show. I feel the same way now.


9 posted on 11/04/2012 7:48:43 AM PST by Luke21
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To: ScottinSacto

Good article, but the report then goes on to stay its purpose is to show that earlier polls showing Reagan ahead were flawed and only those polls showing statistical ties were “correct”. How? Well, they claim that a repolling of 90% of prior respondees showed 8% changed their mind after the prior poll, just as they went to the booths.

I would call this “Grabbing at ‘straws polls’.” (Pun intended)


10 posted on 11/04/2012 7:51:39 AM PST by ConservativeMind ("Humane" = "Don't pen up pets or eat meat, but allow infanticide, abortion, and euthanasia.")
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To: kjo

Most would agree that the media are much more openly Left-wing partisans now, and they now appear to use the reporting of their sponsored polls to influence momentum in their desired direction. Their bias shows up in their sample selection.

Aside from Gallup, it does not appear that pollsters have come close to capturing the intensity of the anti-Obama sentiment - despite obvious signs: The Tea Party phenomenon, the 2010 election, the Scott Walker recall results, the nearly spontaneous Chick-fil-a rallies across the country. I don’t think the media have ever before been as invested in a candidate as they are in Obamugabe. His defeat will crush them.


11 posted on 11/04/2012 7:52:39 AM PST by rashley (Rashley)
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To: tom h
None would've voted for Reagan. Why? Because if they were leaning Reagan, they would've known that a vote for Anderson was a vote against Reagan already.

LOL, what??

One could use the same false logic and claim...


12 posted on 11/04/2012 8:09:11 AM PST by FreeReign
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To: kjo
I remember the 1980 election too. Many pundits were predicting a Carter victory, even though much anecdotal experience indicated that very few thought Carter was even remotely competent.

A lot of us remember how we were the laughing stock of the world under that bumbler. This time there isn't that much laughing but more of a morbid fear of what 4 more years of Obmanomics will do to our country.

13 posted on 11/04/2012 8:16:04 AM PST by catfish1957 (My dream for hope and change is to see the punk POTUS in prison for treason)
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To: ScottinSacto
In the end, the MSM is ignoring the HUGE pent-up Republican voter sentiment--they are vastly more supportive of Romney in 2012 than McCain in 2008.

Do not be surprised almost every "battleground state" goes for Romney and even the normally Left-leaning Minnesota will be a up for grabs--even though it will not affect the election because Romney would have won decisively anyway.

14 posted on 11/04/2012 8:38:04 AM PST by RayChuang88 (FairTax: America's economic cure)
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To: tom h

You’re 100% correct.
Even more important, the demographics of 1980 were MUCH more favorably disposed toward Republicans than the demographics of 2012.
That’s why the pollyanas predicting a huge Romney win are sadly deluded.
At best, he wins very narrowly - and given how horrendous Obama has been, that’s a sad commentary on the America of 2012.


15 posted on 11/04/2012 8:39:22 AM PST by NKStarr
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To: catfish1957
Many pundits were predicting a Carter victory, even though much anecdotal experience indicated that very few thought Carter was even remotely competent.

Say what you will about Carter (at least the 1980 Carter), he did not project the win-at-any-cost, litigate-each-and-every-vote attitude that the current occupant projects.

16 posted on 11/04/2012 8:41:32 AM PST by attyatlaw001
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To: tom h; NKStarr
Remember that Romney, while a decent candidate and person, is no Reagan, and the political dynamics are vastly different. The media in 1980 were running an “America Held Hostage” count every day on the news, and those people blindfolded and held captive in Iran got a lot more press than our four dead in Libya have gotten this year. Carter never was the media darling that Obama is. The media, as we have seen, are moving Heaven and Earth to get Obama re-elected. They were not so willing with Carter. Obama is the kind of politician the media have wet dreams about, ultra-liberal, black (sort of), and nothing but a teleprompter-reading nincompoop who is clay in their hands. Carter was a cracker hick from Georgia, ex-Navy officer, who wasn't their ideal of a liberal American politician. As usual, in this election, the ‘Pub candidate has had to wage a battle against two enemies, the ‘Rats and the media, but with Obama, it has been that on steroids.
17 posted on 11/04/2012 8:52:18 AM PST by chimera
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To: chimera

In 1980 the mainstreama media (unlike today, there was no other) hated Reagan but didn’t love Carter. He was always viewed with a certain suspicion in the Northeast because of his religiousity. Today’s mainstream media has a relationship with Obama roughly equivalent to the relationship an observant Catholic has toward the Pope. Their dislike of Romney isn’t personal, they would hate anyone opposing Obama.


18 posted on 11/04/2012 8:59:22 AM PST by NKStarr
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To: tom h
Americans don't like to fire their Presidents, even Presidents as incompetent as Obama.

Yep. For one to vote against the guy one voted for four years prior is to admit a very big error. Not just that, but it means admitting that error to one's self. Not many people would like to introspect along the lines of "I helped eff-up the country's last four years."

However, a decent portion of the people that realize their error still won't vote for the guy that screwed up and voted for four years prior. They're the ones that stay home. There'll be a lot of them this Tuesday.
19 posted on 11/04/2012 9:07:45 AM PST by verum ago (Some people must truly be in love, for only love can be so blind.)
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To: tom h

Your assumption is incorrect. The folks who voted for ANderson would NOT have split 80/20 Carter....your reasoning that they didn’t vote for Reagan can as easily be applied to Carter. They didn’t like either. You have no clue as to who they didn’t like the most. For all you know they disliked Carter enough to either stay home or hold their noses and vote for Reagan.

Nice try but your whole analysis is not only flawed but pointless


20 posted on 11/04/2012 9:30:35 AM PST by Nifster
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