“They do push the sample back into the mainstream for Presidential elections so their results are very good for these. That gives their supporters something to crow about when using Rasmussen polls in a discussion.”

They can be accurate and reflect the mainstream polling outfits, they do each election cycle. It’s in the polling for particular polices that they show a real right wing bias. They are in effect the GOP’s polster.

Their supposed bias towards the GOP may be because of their methodology – they use automated polling, and look at likely voters (rather than all registered voters or all adults), which favors Republicans, but I think lends itself to accuracy.

Mark Blumenthal has an excellent piece, ‘Why Rasmussen is So Different’, here: http://www.pollster.com/blogs/why_is_rasmussen_so_different.php

However if you compare the results of every other polling outfit they are way off rightwards almost every time. So I am not sure of the value of this new venture. I guess if you are a RW think tank who wants validation of your ideas it might be useful, to actually discover what middle America thinks not so much

They do push the sample back into the mainstream for Presidential elections so their results are very good for these. That gives their supporters something to crow about when using Rasmussen polls in a discussion.

Nate Silver has has a fair bit to say on this and I trust his opinnions.