General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Here Comes The Polls [View all]democrattotheend
(12,011 posts)But given that polls have underestimated Trump twice, not to mention that the Republicans have a baked-in advantage with the electoral college, I will not feel optimistic about this election unless Biden has at least a five point lead in the final averages. Even that is tenuous, since Biden probably needs to win the popular vote by at least 3-4 points to win the electoral college. And that doesn't even account for how much harder Republicans have made it to vote in so many states.
Since RealClearPolitics (which I know is right-leaning in their articles, but their polling average is good and uses reputable polls) started doing polling averages in 2004, the final polling average for president has only underestimated a Democrat once, in 2012. In every other election for the past 20 years, the RCP average has either been pretty accurate or overestimated the Democrat.
Obviously it's early, but if the polls don't shift decisively towards Biden between now and November I don't have a good feeling at all.