Ron Fournier misuses ‘Bradley effect’ to get on McCain tire swing

Ron Fournier misuses ‘Bradley effect’ to get on McCain tire swingWhile legitimate questions exist about how much the Bradley effect may or may not cost Barack Obama voters, in this story, it’s arguable that notorious AP Washington bureau chief Ron Fournier is on Josh Marshall’s infamous McCain tire swing.

First, the supposedly straight facts:
• One-third of white Dems harbor negative views toward blacks;
• More than a third of all white Democrats and independents agreed with at least one negative adjective about blacks (not sure if this is a separate item or not, actually).

Here comes the tire swing, though. Fournier (and/or co-writers) claim (without saying it was from the same Stanford poll or not) that one-quarter of Dems wonder about Obama’s competency without citing how McCain polls in this area among Republicans.

The story then claims the size of the Bradley effect for Obama could be as much as 6 percentage points. That itself is an outlier, and enough of an outlier to raise my skeptical antennae about the story.

Finally, why does a story like this need five contributors as well as a bylined coauthorI? Is this part of AP’s attempts to insulate Fournier from criticism?