AP: Election Over, 'Obama Wins'

The election is over, and the AP has declared that “Obama wins.”

That’s right, Gov. Romney is wasting his time campaigning and the citizens who support him are wasting their time too. In fact, conservatives and moderates, Republicans and Democrats, and the mass of independents who’ve planned to vote for Romney might as well just stay at home, because “Obama wins.”

Congressman Paul Ryan need not continue pointing out the dismal state of Obama’s foreign policy and Rush Limbaugh need no longer say Obama’s economic policies are damaging this country. It’s all for naught, because “Obama wins.”

On what basis does the AP say this? On the basis of “polls which show the president with a steady lead over Romney,” of course. The problem is that some such polls, like the Washington Post-ABC poll, only surveyed 160 people, and even then were only able to show an 11-point lead for Obama in a poll that has an 8-point margin of error. 

In other words, his lead could be 3 points, and depending on how the poll is weighted internally, it could be nothing. And given the press’s unrealistic partisan weighting of respondents, it’s questionable whether he leads at all.

Just in case Romney supporters are smart enough to ignore the polls and show up to vote en masse on election day, the AP has covered its tracks by saying its “analysis isn’t meant to be predictive.”