Polling Analyst Catfight!

We now tie together the last two posts (squabbling + polling-nerdliness), by way of a link noticed while Googling in support of them.

(You're kind to think, "It's the heat that's doing this to him," if in fact you were that kind, but no, the truth is, I can't get enough of this kind of stuff. It's my soap opera, it's my People magazine. What can I say?)

Anyway, it appears that Andrew Gelman simply does not care for John Zogby's jealousy of Nate Silver. (And that was a way fun sentence to type.)

Meow:

Here is some advice from someone [Zogby] who has been where you [Silver] are today.

Sorry, John. (I can call you that, right? Since you're calling Nate "Nate"?). Yes, you were once the hot pollster. But, no, you were never where Nate is today. Don't kid yourself. Zogby writes:

You [Nate] are hot right now -- using an aggregate of other people's work, you got 49 of 50 states right in 2008.

Yes, Nate used other people's work. That's what's called "making use of available data." Or, to use a more technical term employed in statistics, it's called "not being an idiot."

And it just gets better from there, although by now, you're excused if you're somewhat uncertain what might be meant when I say better.