The Ipsos/Reuters tracking poll is rated C+ by Fivethirtyeight, and has been among the swingiest national polls this primary season.
An internet based poll, the numbers reported are an aggregate of the previous five days of responses. Every Wednesday, they release an “official” weekly result, but there are also occasional releases of the five day averages between those releases.
The poll released on December 4th rocketed to the rec list here on DailyKos, as it showed just a 15 point lead for Clinton, much closer than other polling, and a 13 point net improvement for Sanders over their poll a week before that where Clinton led by 28.
There was a lot of condescension and gloating from certain segments of the pro-Sanders population around DailyKos, particularly towards those of us who pointed out some basic facts about the poll and its nature.
So where are we today?
Well, compared to the results diaried last week, Clinton is up 9, Sanders is down 9 and she has more than doubled her lead as a result. The relatively close 51-36 race has been blown wide open into a 61-27 blowout.
So what happened to cause this epic and seismic collapse of the Sanders campaign?
Nothing.
This is just a bad poll. Throw it on the pile with the rest, watch it swing wildly back and forth if you find that entertaining. Don’t crow about your surge one week unless you’re willing to eat crow about your collapse the next.