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Wednesday, Dec 5, 2012 9:03 PM UTC

Nate Silver: Still not trusted

A new survey reveals the public remains wary of America's best known poll guru, even after nailing the election

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Topics: Nate Silver, New York Times, 2012 Elections, Gallup, , ,

Nate Silver: Still not trusted (Credit: Wikipedia)

What do you have to predict to win the love of the American people?

New York Times statistics wizard Nate Silver became a kind of celebrity last month for calling every state correctly in the presidential election. Even so,  the public still doesn’t know what to make of him. According to a new survey by liberal polling outfit Public Policy Polling, only 12 percent of responders had a favorable view of the bespectacled sage, and this in a group that went 51 percent for Barack Obama. PPP found that 10 percent had an unfavorable view of him and 77 percent weren’t sure.

Meanwhile, beleaguered pollster Gallup, which predicted a 49-to-48 percent victory for Mitt Romney last month and subsequently had some tough words for Silver, still enjoys a higher favorability than he does. The PPP survey found that people trust Gallup over Silver by 31 to 14 percent with a notable 55 percent undecided. If that’s the wisdom of crowds it’s almost enough to make one question the value of polling in the first place.

H/T TPM

Alex Halperin is news editor at Salon. You can follow him on Twitter @alexhalperin. More Alex Halperin.

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