By Anne Sorock
Rebelpundit.com

CHICAGO – Daily Kos and the Chicago Teachers Union need to get their messages straight because they’re directly contradicting each other regarding the polling company that just conducted research about the teachers strike. In doing so, they reveal just how hypocritical the Left is when data doesn’t support their claims.

The Chicago Teachers Union is touting a new poll from “We Ask America” that shows a majority of the Chicago public supports their strike. According to the poll, which was commissioned by Rich Miller of local website “Capitol Fax,” 55% of Chicago voting households support the strike. 66% of Chicago households with children in the public schools support the strike.

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However, back in May, DailyKos excoriated We Ask America’s methodology for its use of automated polls when it showed Milwaukee’s Mayor Tom Barrett losing to Governor Walker in the recall election. Daily Kos implied that the poll was laughable and conducted by a partisan organization that cannot be trusted, saying “it always pays to check background and methodology”:

On the value of automated polls, WAA says they “can have a huge number of responses (we’ve conducted polls of up to 70,000 responses!), and cost about one-tenth the price of interview polls.” Why then, does 1,219 work so well for Wisconsin? I guess the summary neglected to call Wisconsin a “cheap” poll date, too….

Though We Ask America challenges the reader to check their record with The American Research Group, who “keeps tabs on the accuracy of pollsters, including We Ask America”, the only reference available there was for the 2012 Wisconsin Republican Primary. WAA’s accuracy rating for polling that narrow demographic was the same as Marquette’s.

…Thanks WAA, for having the automation to get more in touch with my state than I am with a meager 61 years of personal experience here.

I had lots of questions to ask at the WAA website, but the 0 comments displayed will likely remain so, given there’s no functional commenting system there. (And I so wanted to comment on the Mid-America Melee poll!) I must admit, however, that’s a great (and cheap) way to leave an impression of unquestioned accuracy.

But, the Chicago Teachers Union is busy promoting the poll. They sent out a press release Thursday saying it “proves [the] majority of parents and taxpayers approve of [a] fair contract fight” and promoted it on their social media:

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As far as the validity of the poll, while it is not available to non-subscribers, it appears that We Ask America has used a more than robust sample size for its well accepted methodology of automated polling. As Rich Miller, the man for whom the poll was conducted, says:

Parents and the community almost always rally around school teachers at the beginning of a strike, almost no matter where it is. People have strong connections to their teachers, and they tend to back the teachers at the start of job actions. That wears off as strikes wear on, but it should be no surprise that parents (and the Chicago public at large, for that matter) currently support the strike.

It seems that the Left will bash a pollster’s methodology if they don’t agree, but tout that same methodology if they do agree with the results. Surprised?