That wacky Texas Tribune poll

The one with Rick Perry ahead of Kay Bailey 42-30? Not just obviously flawed, not simply bogus, but a whiff of deception on the part of the Texas political sphere's shiny new model.

First of all, Polling Point simply doesn't have the chops to to perform this research. They are a sign-up-and-vote-online outfit. Even Zogby has more credibility. If the Tribbers were going to spend tens of thousands of their dollars on a poll, they should have picked one with a better methodology, or at least a more visible reputation.

Secondly, while PP had Ronnie Earle and Farouk Shami as Democratic choices for governor -- officially neither one is in the race, until Tuesday that is for Shami -- Hank Gilbert was not, at least for most of the "polling period". That's just incompetent. Gilbert has had ten times the online and offline visibility of both Earle and Shami combined. Gilbert has been on a statewide ballot before, in fact was the state's second-highest Democratic vote collector in 2006.

Someone at the Tribune must have known all this, and just flat-out blew it. Or God forbid, something worse.

Third, Wayne Slater and Glenn Smith and even Paul Burka have all questioned the poll's veracity. Burka's slow, but when even he gets it...

Fourth, Evan Smith is purportedly aggressively defensive about the poll. Protests and methinking and all that.

So with that many black marks against it, why run with it (besides the obvious, which is that they spent thousands of dollars on it)?

It's a shame the Texas Tribune opened with such a stinkbomb. They need to hold themselves to a higher standard than this going forward. If it's accurate that some of those folks writing over there are pulling down 90K, they suddenly have a lot farther distance to go to earn it.

RG Ratcliffe excerpts Kay Bailey's response. This is probably the last time I will ever agree with her.

Ed. note: The Texas Tribune poll did not include Shami as a candidate. I regret the error.