So I follow up to a previous post exploring polling data by adding a couple of graphs with updated data. The underlying idea is the same - use LOESS to smooth the polls, don't mess with weighting them by quality, etc. I get the graph at the right for the raw polls. There are a couple of things I notice here: the distance between the predicted Obama poll result and 50% is less than the difference between the Obama result and the McCain result. Of course, the smoothing span in the loess might change that (I used loess(...,span=0.2) for this result). However, third party candidates do have the ability to confound matters, and what is more important in terms of who will be taking the inauguration speech on Jan 20 is the state-by-state polling. However, given that the 95% prediction intervals (given by the shading) have separated the McCain story at the state-by-state level is the same as that shown in the graph.
The difference graph is a little bit clearer (partly because it shows fewer data points). Other than a brief dip below 0 due to the rather sharp Republican convention bounce, Obama's been polling very strongly. These results are very similar to what you would find on Nate Silver's fivethirtyeight.com (where he not only uses the loess but also weights pollsters by quality based on previous elections, newness, and other factors). The 95% interval (light gray) has been clear over 0 for a week and a half (the dark gray is a 50% interval, just to get an idea of the tightness of the difference prediction).
If Nate Silver's analysis of the electoral college is correct (that Obama could go to -2.2 in the difference graph and still come out with an electoral college victory), the only time he was in trouble was in the week after the Republican convention.
