Even Scott Rasmussen, founder and president of Rasmussen Reports, political analyst and author, puts his numbers and political predictions into practical terms.
"I'm a New York Giants football fan, and my chief operating officer is an Eagles fan," Rasmussen said. "We disagree on every call the referees make, and when something is going really well for the Giants, I can needle him about all the divisions within the Eagles, and of course the reverse is true.
"We say the same things, we just do it in different circumstances, and that's the way the political parties are, they're cheering for their team."
Rasmussen was in West Virginia for a discussion with the University Economics Club luncheon lecture series sponsored by the West Liberty University Center of Economic Philosophy.
Rasmussen said he was asked to speak about the presidential race, and while his speeches are always shifting because of numbers that change daily, he said West Virginia is easy to gauge.
"It's fairly clear West Virginia is not going to vote for Barack Obama," he said. "Could he increase his support a little? Sure. Could he lose a little more? Absolutely, but not enough to make a difference."
Rasmussen said analysts always know which way the vote will go in about 40 states throughout the country, including in West Virginia.
"Those states are going to be ignored by the campaigns, and that's frustrating to an awful lot of people," he said. "Something a little different is because of the Internet there has been a communications explosion."
Rasmussen said everyone can follow the campaigns now, which makes numbers look different from even eight years ago.
"We all watched the debates online," he said. "And I'm not commenting on whether it was good or bad, that's just the way it was."
Rasmussen said this presidential election is "all about the economy."
"It's not how the economy is really doing, it's the perception," he said. "If people feel really good about the economy in October, President Obama will do a lot better."
He also said a lot of Mitt Romney's votes may not come from true supporters but rather from Obama detractors.
"The single most important thing will be consumer confidence — the way people feel about their own confidence," he said. "And it's not as if the president can give a speech and change people's minds immediately.
"It's a reality people experience: When you leave college and look for a job, you experience the economy. When you get laid off from your job, you experience the economy."
Rasmussen also said people often misunderstand polls or campaigns because they get wrapped up in side issues.
He said Rasmussen Reports releases six or eight different polls every day, usually based on something that's been in recent headlines.
He said a majority of Americans want the health care reform law repealed, and as the U.S. Supreme Court of Appeals justices seem to take stronger stances against the law, the public approves of them more and more. That is something Rasmussen said "has been kind of fun to watch."
He said many people are trying to predict how the Supreme Court will rule this week on the Affordable Care Act, but Rasmussen said he doesn't know. No one does, he said, except the justices. However, Rasmussen said he knows what voters want.
"A majority of Americans want the law repealed, they have held that view ever since it was passed; we also know a majority think they want the court to do the job and overturn it."
He said voters' opinions about the nation's highest court has changed in recent months.
"Remember those oral arguments back in March? Just before that, we asked people to rate the supreme court, and 28 percent said court was doing a good or excellent job. Then they had that week of hearings, and it became apparent the law might be overturned, and the justices were a lot more skeptical than people expected … ratings shot all the way up to 41 percent after that," he said. "I think you'll see even more of that if the health care law is overturned; again, when you say are (the public) is following it, they don't know the details of every nuanced part of the discussion, they don't know which Supreme Court justice asked which question, they know it's an important discussion, and they want it repealed."
Other issues voters are passionate about include immigration.
"Most Americans still believe the federal government is not serious enough about the immigration issue," he said. "This is a topic that both parties really mess up on a lot because most Americans do favor a welcoming immigration policy.
"What most Americans really hate is when people come here illegally and the government doesn't really seem to do anything about it, that anger is directed at the government rather than the immigrants."
Rasmussen said his company will do some polling on the West Virginia campaign for governor soon, so he didn't want to comment on the race just yet. He said in terms of West Virginia politics, his company watches U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin "very closely."
Rasmussen also had thoughts on the distance the state's congressional delegation was creating from the president.
"The decision to stay away from President Obama is a wise one," he said. "It's got to be very difficult to be a statewide Democrat in West Virginia and to operate with the National Democratic Party because they're really heading in different directions."
Rasmussen said while West Virginia's role in the presidential election this cycle may not be very interesting to some right now, it still plays a part in the larger region.
"I'll try to put it in historical context, and what it means for after the election," he said.
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