A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll has been getting a lot of press lately. While showing that Barack Obama enjoyed a noticeable bump in support from women since Hillary Clinton exited the presidential race, the survey appears to indicate that Obama is less popular than McCain among suburban females. Specifically, the poll indicated that suburban women favored McCain by six points, 44-38 percent. The findings were trumpeted most noticeably by MSNBC, which has suggested that Obama has "Woman Trouble."
One little problem though: the poll is likely meaningless. The Huffington Post explains:
MSNBC has now provided The Huffington Post with more information on its "suburban women" finding showing a 44-38 McCain lead over Obama. "This is within the margin of error of 9.34 percent based on a sample size of 110 within the larger poll," an MSNBC source wrote over email. (That's three times the margin of error for the entire poll.) This means McCain's 44 percent figure of support among suburban women could actually be as low as 35 percent, while Obama's 38 percent figure could rise as high as 47 percent. Alternatively, McCain could be leading Obama 53-29. Bottom line: that much variance renders the finding of little statistical use.
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