Libs' exit poll hysteria

This, from the Union Leader of New Hampshire (you know, the blue state!):

About those exit polls:
Sorry, no Bush conspiracy here

SOME DEMOCRATS and liberals who refused to “moveon” after President Bush won reelection in November either fabricated or latched on to all sorts of conspiracy theories in their desperation and despair. None has been shown to have any basis in fact, and last week the very first conspiracy theory offered on Election Day was soundly crushed by a polling company investigation.

Exit polls on Election Day showed John Kerry with sizable leads in state after state. The polls so consistently predicted a Kerry victory that conservative columnist Bill Buckley told a group of friends in an ominous tone, “It shall be Kerry.”

When the votes were actually counted, however, their results differed greatly from the exit poll predictions. The discrepancy prompted immediate charges that the Bush campaign had rigged the votes and stolen the election.

Well, last week pollsters Joe Lenski of Edison Media Research and Warren Mitofsky of Mitofsky International (the companies that conducted Election Day polls for the Associated Press and major television news organizations) released their analysis of the exit polls. They found that the polls overstated Kerry’s support in 26 states and Bush’s support in four states. The final national poll predicted that Kerry would win the election.

The main reason for overstating Kerry’s support? Bush voters refused to answer pollsters’ questions in larger numbers than did Kerry voters. No evidence of voter fraud was found.

So much for the conspiracy.

So much, indeed. It's pretty damning when the exit poll companies themselves explain the discrepancy and reasons for their screw-ups. They would have been better served to have insisted that they were not wrong, and indeed, actual votes had been tampered with...they wouldn't have looked inept and incompetent. Kudos to them for their candor and honesty.

But hey...since when do liberals let a little thing like facts get in the way of a good conspiracy theory?