It would seem appropriate, given that they were solely responsible for half of the data collected today, to say a few words about YouGov. The firm is a British firm, that moved into the American market in 2007 when they bought out Polimetrix, a California-based firm that had done a lot of internet-based polling in 2006 in an arrangement with Stanford University.

Their polling is based on internet samples, a method which some find problematic (some aggregators of polling, indeed, refuse to utilize their data). It is a methodology that I also confess to qualms about, because when you have a sample that is essentially volunteering to participate, and a smaller universe from which to draw from, the potential pitfalls are pretty self-evident.

However, the true measure is performance. Some internet-based polling has a track record of missing the fairways. Indeed, the only poll that is specifically barred from inclusion in the Wrap is an internet-based survey: polls from JZ Analytics (once called "Zogby Interactive"). John Zogby is an established veteran who has some impressive hits on his resumé, but his foray into internet polling was pretty awful. 2006 was a particular low water mark, whether it was the insistence that Democrat Bill Ritter was enmeshed in a coin flip for the Colorado governor's race (he won by 17), or that Herb Kohl was being hard-pressed for re-election (he wound up winning by 38). The lack of movement in the polls also made clear that Zogby was trying to make do with what were very small collections of voters in each state.

YouGov, however, has earned at least a cycle's worth of benefit of the doubt. Their 2010 track record was more than reasonable. Indeed, of the 18 pollsters that offered up a substantive number of polls, YouGov came in fourth place in terms of their accuracy (defined as the percentage of races where they came within three percent of the final margin).

On balance, their huge set of numbers (they released polls in roughly half of the states in the Union over the past two days) look pretty good for President Obama, and less good for Democratic Senate prospects. Democrats are going to be nonplussed about a McMahon lead in Connecticut, just like they had to be about the same outfit showing Tommy Thompson ahead in Wisconsin yesterday. Also, the internet panels seemed loath to jump decisively on the incumbent bandwagon. Even the most optimistic Republican, for example, knows that Kirsten Gillibrand is going to win well over the 52 percent she is polling with this YouGov panel.

The biggest virtue of this YouGov series of surveys is we get our first look at some states that have been hugely underpolled. It confirms, for example, that Mitt Romney is way underperforming John McCain in Tennessee. It also confirms, as if any confirmation was needed, that the GOP is essentially dormant in Maryland (the largest state in the Union that had yet to see any statewide polling to date in the 2010 cycle).

Something tells me this won't be the last time we see YouGov come around. Now, with a baseline in nearly two dozen states, we can see how the races shift and turn in the final six weeks.

In other polling news...