Has Obama's Pollster Become a Poll Truther?

Just a few weeks ago, conservatives (including some at this site) called out pollsters for releasing polls with impossibly huge sampling discrepancies as wide as D+11. For their trouble they were labeled “poll truthers” by folks on the left. Now, in the wake of a new USAToday/Gallup poll showing Romney ahead in 12 swing states, the President’s own pollster issued a memo taking issue with Gallup’s methodology.

The memo, which was published by the Wall Street Journal (pdf), called the new Gallup poll an “extreme outlier, defying the trends seen in every other battleground and national poll.” The memo, signed by Joel Benenson, goes on to argue that Gallup’s registered voter model was closer to the mark (than its likely voter polling) in 2010.

The arguments for or against a given poll or polling method should be a matter of open debate. However, it was Democrats and members of the liberal media who, just a couple weeks ago when Obama was riding high, coined the term “poll truther” to mock conservatives who argued with the sampling of Republicans and Democrats in various polls. The idea behind the phrase was to ridicule anyone who suggested polling methodology was problematic by comparing them to “9/11 truther” conspiracy theorists (who happen to be mostly Democrats).

In fact, back on September 25th, the same Joel Benenson who issued today’s memo questioning Gallup’s methodology joined liberal blogger Greg Sargent in mocking those who question the reliability of polls. “I understand that the Romney campaign feels that they need to talk about the public polls. We don’t,” Benenson said at the time. After the President’s disastrous debate performance Oct. 3, apparently things have changed.