IS RASMUSSEN REVERSE-SKEWING POLLS NOW?

The latest poll in the Virginia governor's race is extraordinarily good news for Terry McAuliffe -- he's up by 17 over Ken Cuccinelli. And this poll is from ... Rasmussen? Really? A pollster long known for a significant Republican lean? Rasmussen has McAuliffe up by 17 when every other poll of the race conducted this month has shown McAuliffe up by 7 to 9 points?

Maybe this race really is turning into a blowout -- but I have to wonder whether Rasmussen, seeing that McAuliffe is solidly but not overwhelmingly ahead, is exaggerating the Democrat's lead in the hope that a single-digit McAuliffe victory will now be interpreted as McAuliffe falling short of expectations.

I don't have to remind you that Republicans sneeringly discounted the 2012 polls that showed President Obama leading, claimed that these polls were skewed, then cooked up a lot of excuses for the Obama victory -- Dick Morris said it was because of Sandy, Karl Rove said it was an act of voter suppression for Obama to say negative things about his opponent. In any case, Republicans didn't accept that Obama really won.

The creative interpretation of electoral results by Republicans continues -- Cory Booker, we're told, kinda-sorta lost his Senate race in New Jersey because his victory margin over Steve Lonegan was in the low double digits, and now Lonegan says the government shutdown, which he supported, cost him the election.

Republicans are desperate to send the message that America loves them, and you should pay no attention to actual vote totals that say otherwise. If, as I suspect, Rasmussen is pumping up McAuliffe's numbers, this could be a different form of GOP skewing.