Even honest polls can be wrong, either through sheer incompetence such as bad methodology, or just because of unexpected quirks and changes in the electorate. So you can't be blamed if you simply refuse to accept the numbers because they don't seem right, or because your instincts can't accept the result.

I know I followed the Nate Silver NYT 538 blog pretty closely because I trusted the methodology and I had no reason to doubt his integrity. But I must confess they seemed awfully optimistic for the President. I thought this was going to be a very close election, both in popular and electoral votes, I never imagined Silver would nail it as well as he did.

What I find troubling is not that people don't trust the polls, that is only good sense. What is sad is that the immediate response by those who don't like the projections is to suspect conspiracy.

People commission polls to plan their camp[aigns, it would be foolish to deliberately juice them. And if you were trying to influence the public by false polling, wouldn't it be more likely that you'd show your man as an underdog in order to get your people fired up.

I'm getting tired of this conspiracy crap. Yes, I know they exist, but you can't explain everything you don't like that way.