Liberals go after pollster Rasmussen

Rasmussen is quick to point out the accuracy of his surveys - noting how close his firm was to predicting the final outcome in this fall's New Jersey governor's race. (Rasmussen's final survey in the race showed Republican Chris Christie edging out Gov. Jon Corzine 46 percent to 43 percent. Christie beat Corzine 48 percent to 45 percent on Election Day.) And he argues that he was among the first pollsters to show Obama narrowing the gap with Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary.

Last year, the progressive website FiveThirtyEight.com's pollster ratings, based on the 2008 presidential primaries, awarded Rasmussen the third-highest mark for its accuracy in predicting the outcome of the contests. And Rasmussen's final poll of the 2008 general election - showing Obama defeating Arizona Sen. John McCain 52 percent to 46 percent - closely mirrored the election's outcome.

Rasmussen, for his part, explained that his numbers are trending Republican simply because he is screening for only those voters most likely to head to the polls - a pool of respondents, he argues, that just so happens to bend more conservative this election cycle.

Polling all adults - a method used by Gallup, another polling firm that conducts a daily tracking poll of Obama - Rasmussen acknowledged, is "always going to yield a better result for Democrats."

Rasmussen also weights his results by party more realistically than most other pollsters, giving the GOP numbers in the upper 20's compared to other pollsters who peg GOP support in the low 20's.

Regardless of how you slice it, the president's numbers are falling dramatically. And complaining about the guy bringing you that bad news won't change the dynamics of the situation.