Gravis poll chief (Doug Kaplan) admits "he has no training or experience in polling"

[Welcome_hubby]

DU's expose of Gravis' polling practices has prompted the ultra-right-wing website Human Events to issue a "Leave Gravis Alone!" type of defense in their website.

The piece doesn't do much to help Gravis, if you ask me, as the head of the "polling" organization admits having no polling training or experience whatsoever.

Excerpt:

There were two tracks for the attacks on Kaplan and Gravis Marketing. The first was personal. This amounted to public record searches for problems Kaplan and his employees had with law enforcement, other businesses and the IRS. While certainly awkward, nothing in the fire hose of embarrassing information the attackers doused on him helped anyone better understand his polls.

Kaplan could be both a drunk driver in 1998 and still have good polls—polls that caught the country’s pro-Romney move a month before it showed up in other polls.

The second line of attack is on the methods and legitimacy of the polls.

Kaplan said himself he has no training or experience in polling. But, you do not have to know how to make meatballs to own a restaurant.

Link

[ejbr]

1. No experience or training?

I'm shocked....SHOCKED, I tell ya!

[speedoo]

2. The hard work of grantcart and his team is beginning to pay off.

Well done!

[DURHAM D]

3. Bless Neil McCabe's widdle heart

I just looked at his other articles/interests and he appears to be a paid NRA fluffer.

[boingboinh]

4. Now for RCP and 538 to drop them. Crossing Fingers.

[TroyD]

13. I wouldn't count on RCP, but we should send this to Nate!

[John2]

5. What organization?

Who is this guy's employees? You got people vouching for this guy but some of their Polls are questionable. They are given a methodology but what study says this is an exact science? Even one of the person's trying to vouch for this guy claims his method was unusual. So this could just be a case of a group of Pollsters being loyal to each other in the business. These guys seem to be collaborating with other. I hate to bring in racial issues but then again, most Pollsters seems to be white guys. Is this just a unique club?

One of the problems with this guy's Polls are the percentages he gives on racial demographics. When you see 20 to 26 percent of the African American vote going to Romney, that would be unprecedented in Presidential Elections, especially when the Democratic candidate is African American. I would think these Pollsters are serving a public interests and not trying to stoke the ego of some other Pollster in their Profession. Kaplan has no track record period. That is why Silver and RCP needs to throw them out. So if they are just stroking their egos for profit, then they are not serving a public interest at all. I feel I'm more qualified of conducting a Poll than Kaplan. I have a four year Political Science Degree. It shouldn't be as simple as making meatballs.

[grantcart]

6. just a note one of the convictions was for a cocaine arrest while he was also a Gravis employee

We have a whole bunch of 'personal' stuff that we kept out.

It is true that you don't have to know how to make meatballs to own a restaurant but you do have to know how to run a restaurant to run a restaurant.

More to the point even if you do know how to run a restaurant that doesn't mean that the New York Times Food Critic has to give you a platform or find your food to be edible.

But hey if you guys want to stand wtih Kaplan, be my guest.

Interesting to see who supports him in the end.

They do misunderstand the mainline of attack and that is professional. Douglas Kaplan is not a professional pollster.

The most interesting takeaway I have of all of this is that no one disputes any of the FACTS that we have published so far.

[progressivebydesign]

8. What seems to be missing from Gravis is an legitimate Advisory Board or connections.

There does not seem to be even ONE person involved that is a true statistician or political science scholar, or legit business-person. You could almost accept the "don't have to know how to make meatballs" comment IF someone in the freakin' restaurant was a professional CHEF! You don't have to know how to make meatballs to own a restaurant, but your kitchen staff MUST.

Thank you again for exposing that fraud. And it's so incredibly telling that people are STILL using his poll numbers!!

[reflection]

7. But he read several books by the time he was 14!

That should count for something!

[factsarenotfair]

9. When you search for Gravis Marketing in Google News,

the first result is the Human Events article set off by itself:
"Leftist bloggers cyber bully pollster for calling Romney momentum ..."

and then hundreds of articles that all seem to present Gravis as legitimate (I didn't check every single one).

[ProudProgressiveNow]

10. I found..

lots of the research done by the DU team....... it's getting traction...

[factsarenotfair]

14. Great!

Was Google News ever non-biased?

[John2]

11. That is the point.

These guys seem to have a unique club and their own standards. I'm challenging them. A lot of their Polls are trash. Garbage in and Garbage out. I'm personally challenging Mr Kaplan's qualifications.

[factsarenotfair]

15. Thank you!

We all have to do whatever we can.

[grantcart]

16. a personal challenge?

Be aware I understand that Kaplan pulls to the right by about 5 degrees.

[Baitball Blogger]

12. This is typical for Florida.

All you have to do to get to the top of the line in these small towns is have ambition and a lack of ethics.