Every time I get fed up with the Democrats...

[Philly]

No.

Of course that's not what Pew was asking, and "yes" or "no" are never your only options in these kind of polls.

[Professor]

[Philly]

[Professor]

Speaking of polls like that, I love those ones where people have to actively call into, and you still have 3-4% "I don't know". Seriously? Someone actually picked up the phone just to tell me that they don't know?

These are the kinds of people that elect our leaders. (tad bit sarcastic, there)

[Philly]

[Indy]

If a poll was asked like that, stating that Saddam was behind the 9/11 attacks, then that is indeed a push-poll.

The idea of push-polls isn't to get skewed data, it's to circulate propaganda or misinformation disguised as a poll.

So in Mo's example while yes, you could I guess say "Oh look 50% of Americans support invading Iraq!" while leaving out the part that they were given a false choice, usually when somebody fields something like that its they're somewhat transparently circulating the myth that... Saddam was behind the 9/11 attacks.

Oh and it didn't stop there. For Bush's second campaign, professional douchebag and complete fraud Ari Fleischer created a commercial showing the planes hitting the WTC and with the language, something like "On 9/11, they attacked us..."

What was the ad referring to? Support for the Iraqi war effort.

Yes it was just that shameless. And nobody body-slammed him or the Bush campaign for doing this.

Questioning = unpatriotic, dontcha know?!

[Philly]

The question was not asked like that. She made it up. And it was 72%, not 50%. The link has been posted twice in this thread but apparently you would rather play make believe.



Note the question makes no mention of Saddam nor of 9/11.

Also note the 72/22 split in favor of using military force in Iraq.

[Mo~]

I did not make that question up. I was asked that exact question when I was being polled constantly. I stopped accepting being polled due to being asked EXACTLY those types of false choice questions. Part of the reason I gave up my landline when I moved back here was because I knew if it rang I was either getting an advertising call or a poll. Somehow, when I was involved in campaigning, I got put on some damned phone list and I couldn't find out how to get off of it even though I was on the Do Not Call list.

There are so many exceptions to that law that it can become damned near useless, even for shift workers. I finally had to shut the ringer off which bothered me at first until I realized that that everyone I cared about, especially my kids, called my cell phone and they knew when it was inappropriate to wake me up.

[Philly]

Are you alleging that Pew engages in push polling? Just because you got called for a push poll doesn't mean the poll that eynon and I cited from a respected polling agency is one of those push polls.

[Mo~]

I'm saying blind faith in polls and what you see on the internet is faulty. First of all, phone polls are made on landlines and more and more people are dumping them, so you are inherently going to be polling older, more conservative people. Second, they are only going to actually be answered by people willing to take the time to respond and are interested enough in the subject to continue the poll after several questions, therefore they will mostly get answered only by the more rabid people, skewing them to the extreme ends of the spectrum. I also noticed whilst being polled that many of the preliminary questions were leading to developing an attitude before getting to the main questions.

Don't forget, Philly, that the "Dewey Wins" debacle was due to phone polling which at that time were only in the homes of the more affluent.