New poll has Angle up by 4 — Ralston on damage control

Let's continue to watch what has now become the rather predictable bias of pundit Jon Ralston.

This morning's blog is a good reminder of how he says one thing one day, then revises it when it doesn't fit his hopes for Democrats and Sen. Harry Reid.

Now comes a new poll from Time and CNN that has Angle again up by 4 percent with only days before the election.

So where does Ralston go? Immediately to the witch doctor pundit bag to knock down the poll.

His first communication was to say the poll is wholesale BS.

A few minutes later he breathlessly tells us that he "just got the cross tabs" from the poll and Reid's holding more Ds than Angle is holding Rs. Now the poll isn't BS. The Jon Ralston extrapolation has Reid really up by 8 points. Woo-hoo!

Then later he writes that the poll oversampled Independents and if that is corrected -- surprise, surprise -- Reid is really still up by 8 percent.

Right. With that kind of "analysis" he ought to have the song "When You Wish Upon a Star" playing softly in the background every time you click on his blog.

Here's the story from Time/CNN on their poll. Remember, neither Time nor CNN are conservative news organizations. But they do try to objectively report the findings of their poll, unlike Ralston who works overtime to spin every news event toward Reid. Here's the lead:

"Democrats may not lose their Senate majority, but they appear in danger of losing their Senate majority leader. Less than a week before Election Day, Democrat Harry Reid trails Republican Senate nominee Sharron Angle in Nevada by 4 points, according to a TIME/CNN/Opinion Research survey that shows the GOP with late-in-the-cycle leads in four key Senate battleground states.

"In each of those contests, Republican candidates are buoyed by big leads among independent voters. Despite trailing in Nevada's two most populous counties, Angle boasts a 15-point lead over Reid among independents and sizable margins among males, white voters and voters over 50, giving her a 49%-45% cushion overall. Angle has padded her lead in the race's closing stages; a TIME/CNN/Opinion Research poll earlier this month put her edge at 2 points, a tally within the margin of error. In the latest poll, Nevada Tea Party candidate Scott Ashjian drew 2% in the race, less than in previous surveys."