Political Polls

With the U.S. Presidential election less than three weeks away, I thought it was a good idea to learn more about pollsters and their organizations.

Here is a list that includes the top opinion polls. These are the ones most often mentioned in news stories and are frequently co-sponsored by the major national newspapers and television networks.

Gallup Organization
Harris Interactive, Inc.
Peter D. Hart Research Associates
Mason-Dixon Polls
Marist College Institute for Public Opinion
National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago
Pew Research Center
Quinnipiac University Polling Institute
Roper Poll, University of Connecticut.
Zogby International

To see how the various polls compare check out FiveThirtyEight -- Electoral Projections Done Right -- and Pollster.com.

The National Council on Public Polls has interesting statistics on how the major polls did in predicting previous presidential elections. And Wiki has an excellent overview of Opinion Polls: the history of them and how they work -- or are supposed to work.

Flu Shots for the 2008-2009 Season

"Ouch!"

Yesterday we got our flu shots. It's a fall ritual like Halloween and raking leaves. We went to Pensacola's Professional Health Examiners -- a one-stop service where you can get flu shots and paternity tests right in the neighborhood. Our real reason to go there is that we can get our shots and be on our way in about five minutes. Try that at Walgreens or the doctor's office.

There's lots of flu information at the Centers for Disease Control website and specific information from them about the coming 2008-2009 flu season. We will find out during the peak of flu season, in January and February, if "they" picked the right formula to fend off this winter's flu bugs.

Still have flu questions? Click and read Seattle's excellent Flu FAQs.

Follow Up -- Presidential Predictions

Here's a follow up to the Presidential Predictions posts on this blog back in February 2007.

Back then, the predicted winners for the Democrats were John Edwards for the presidential nomination with Barack Obama for vice president.

For the Republicans John McCain was the clear choice for the presidential nod. But for vice president it was nearly a five-way tie. Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney were in a tie (two votes each) for the VP nomination barely ahead of Bill Frist, Rudy Giuliani and Chuck Hegel (one vote each). Nineteen-months ago, Sarah Palin wasn't even a gleam in Karl Rove's eye.

You can look at the original posts here:
Predicting the Candidates for 2008
Tallies

Three Named-Storms Now in the North Atlantic

Late afternoon on Friday it looks like Tropical Storm Hanna has missed us here in the Florida panhandle. It may cause a wet weekend along the Atlantic coast.

[This map is from WeatherUnderground.com. For a larger map click the image above. For more tropical storm information go to the Weather Underground site.]

Hurricane Ike may be headed right into the Gulf of Mexico. On its way to Pensacola? That's a possibility. We will find out by the middle of next week.

And it's too early to guess where Tropical Storm Josephine may end up.

Pensacola's Weather Alert

This is what our weather map looked like on Wednesday morning. The line of storms is moving from west to east. The white dot above the word "Pensacola" is where we live. The night before there were predictions of heavy weather overnight (didn't happen) and worse weather in the morning.

The weather system pictured above hit us about 30 minutes after I saved the image. We heard two distant claps of thunder and we got half an inch of rain. That's all. We were lucky to miss the deadly tornadoes and violent thunderstorms they had north of us. But it sure looked dire there for a few minutes.

Predicting the Candidates for 2008

Who do you think will be running for President and Vice President from the Republican Party and the Democratic Party?

If you want your prediction listed just leave a comment or email me. You can always revise your predictions as the tides change and people drop out. And I will post all your changes.

Please base your predictions completely on who you feel are the strongest or most likely candidates right now. Not who you would like to see run and/or get elected.

To participate send me an email or leave a comment at the bottom of this post.

The predictions below are listed in the order received.



Here are my initial predictions...

On February 13, 2007, Kenyo predicts that the Democratic Party candidates will be:
John Edwards for President, Barack Obama for Vice President

On February 13, 2007 Kenyo predicts that the Republican Party candidates will be:
Mitt Romney for President, Newt Gingrich for Vice President


On February 13, 2007, RogerJ predicts that the Democratic Party candidates will be:
John Edwards for President, Bill Richardson for Vice President

On February 13, 2007, RogerJ predicts that the Republican Party candidates will be
John McCain for President, Chuck Hagel for Vice President


On February 13, 2007, Barbelli predicts that the Democratic Party candidates will be:
John Edwards for President, Barack Obama for Vice President

On March 19, 2007, Barbelli predicts that the Democratic Party candidates will be:
Al Gore for President, Barack Obama for Vice President

On February 13, 2007, Barbelli predicts that the Republican Party candidates will be
John McCain for President, Rudy Giuliani for Vice President


On February 16, 2007, bhd predicts that the Democratic Party candidates will be:
Hillary Clinton for President, Barack Obama for Vice President

On February 16, 2007, bhd predicts that the Republican Party candidates will be
John McCain for President, Newt Gingrich for Vice President


On February 16, 2007, Jack predicts that the Democratic Party candidates will be:
John Edwards for President, Barack Obama for Vice President

On February 16, 2007, Jack predicts that the Republican Party candidates will be
John McCain for President, Mitt Romney for Vice President


On February 16, 2007, Jezziebones predicts that the Democratic Party candidates will be:
Hillary Clinton for President, Bill Richardson for Vice President

On February 16, 2007, Jezziebones predicts that the Republican Party candidates will be
John McCain for President, Bill Frist for Vice President


On February 21, 2007, DT predicts that the Democratic Party candidates will be:
Hillary Clinton for President, Barack Obama for Vice President

On February 27, 2007, DT predicts that the Democratic Party candidates will be:
John Edwards for President, Barack Obama for Vice President

On February 21, 2007, DT predicts that the Republican Party candidates will be
John McCain for President, Mitt Romney for Vice President


Email me here or leave a comment below.

To see how these predictions all add up click here.

Candidate Prediction Tallies

The totals so far for the Democratic Party candidates:
for President
John Edwards (4)
Hillary Clinton (2)
Al Gore (1)

for Vice President
Barack Obama (5)
Bill Richardson (2)


The totals so far for the Republican Party candidates:
for President
John McCain (6)
Mitt Romney (1)

for Vice President
Bill Frist (1)
Newt Gingrich (2)
Rudy Giuliani (1)
Chuck Hagel (1)
Mitt Romney (2)



Click here to go to the main Candidate Predictions page.