Anyway, the story turns out to be a great example about survey design tradeoffs.
This post had an additional benefit: I've been able to observed the votes for my comments go up and down like a roller coaster for the past hour, as the readers of HN apply their own biases. Rather interesting, especially as the number of actual responses is relatively small.
What can we learn about HN's user base from the ultimate comment score, I wonder?
Note my first post. I intentionally left it open-ended to spark discussion. In an election cycle where online propaganda and sockpuppetry have been confirmed, I don't think my question is in the same league as those posed by flat-earthers or 9/11 conspiracy theorists.
As for the motivation, as a purveyor of facts I have to imagine that the NYT is frustrated at Trump's complete disregard for them, and his disregard of polling is a big part of that.