Yeah, the Rasmussen website is full of examples of garbage in / garbage out. These polls can ping anyone's BS detector -- anyone with any sense, anyhow. This sense of what's valid or not can be supported by understanding basic statistics -- yet, even without that, anyone who is paying attention can feel when something is "off." Unfortunately, too many people aren't paying attention.

Rasmussen isn't a legitimate news or data site IMO. It's just a mouthpiece like Faux "news," where the right wingers can go to hear what they want to hear. As a stats teacher, reading their website made me cringe to think that so many people take Rasmussen seriously, especially people in power who should know better.

Sorry you didn't do well in your stats class. Many of these classes are badly designed. They get too bogged down in the calculations, while the key concepts are brushed-over so lightly that if you blink you'll miss them. It should be the other way around.

In practice, computers do the calculations. Students shouldn't have to worry about that part so much unless they're in college and majoring in math with a focus on statistics. The key concepts of statistics can be explained at any level so that just about anyone could understand.

In today's information-based society, basic statistics is about as important as being able to read, write, and count. Lack of this understanding is one reason so many people get duped. So I guess I better get writing. Thanks for reading and thanks for the prompt and the claps.