hrefna , 
Part of my gripe with Nate Silver, beyond all of my other gripes with Nate Silver, is how he helped further acculturate this idea out that:
Smart Guy™ + Numbers™ + Math™ = Reliable Result™
Like this has always been a problem and wasn't new when he started modeling politics, but he pushed it quite a bit further.
No qualifications, no background, no nothing required. Just Smart Guy™ + Numbers™ + Math™ is all you need.