By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Kasz216 on 25 February 2010
Edit Thread
NinjaguyDan said:
Kasz216 said:
NinjaguyDan said:
Kasz216 said:

I mean... one question is... and I quote...

"What comes closer to the lesson you think Democrats should learn from the recent Senate election in Massachusetts, where the seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy was won by a Republican: "Voters want Democrats to slow down and try to do less." OR, "Voters are upset about the slow pace of change - and will hold Democrats accountable if they refuse to use their power to fight special interests on behalf of regular people."

It doesn't take someone with a degree that involves making questions like this to realize how unbelievably bias some of these questions are. 

If we're isolating questions, this is the only one that matters:

QUESTION: Would you favor or oppose the national government offering everyone the choice of buying into a government administered health insurance plan -- something like the Medicare coverage that people 65 and older get -- that would compete with private health insurance plans?

                         FAVOR   OPPOSE   NOT SURE
NEVADA (Reid)
ALL                        56%     38%       6%
INDEPENDENTS      61%     35%       4%
OBAMA VOTERS     75%     13%     12%

ILLINOIS (Durbin, Burris)
ALL                        68%     26%       6%
INDEPENDENTS      69%     22%       9%
OBAMA VOTERS     87%       6%       7%

WASHINGTON (Murray, Cantwell)
ALL                        65%     28%       7%
INDEPENDENTS      67%     25%       8%
OBAMA VOTERS     79%     11%     10%

MISSOURI (McCaskill)
ALL                        57%     35%       8%
INDEPENDENTS      56%     33%     11%
OBAMA VOTERS     76%     18%       6%

VIRGINIA (Webb, Warner)
ALL                        61%     32%       7%
INDEPENDENTS      62%     30%       8%
OBAMA VOTERS     78%     15%       7%

IOWA (Harkin)
ALL                        62%     31%       7%
INDEPENDENTS      61%     29%     10%
OBAMA VOTERS     78%     14%       8%

MINNESOTA (Klobuchar, Franken)
ALL                        62%     33%       5%
INDEPENDENTS      62%     32%       6%
OBAMA VOTERS     82%     15%       3%

COLORADO (Udall, Bennet)
ALL                        58%     36%       6%
INDEPENDENTS      59%     34%       7%
OBAMA VOTERS     78%     17%       5%

 

 

Are you familiar with priming?  If so you'd understand why you can't isolate questions and why a couple biased ones ruin a questionaire.

 

You also missed out this part.

MN and CO polls used slightly different language for this question: "Which do you think should be a higher priority for congressional Democrats right now – working in a bipartisan way with Republicans in Congress or fighting for policies that will benefit working families, even if those policies can only be passed with Democratic votes?"

I've participated in several phone polls, a couple were obviously Republican backed and they had questions in the same vein.

I didn't miss anything, what you pointed out has nothing to do with the question I highlited.

Which you know... were also badly biased and shouldn't be used in an arguement.  Like... i've already said in this thread... both parties do it, and both polls should be ignored in favor of the more nuetral ones.  Like CNN polls... even though they do lean slightly left.

So you don't understand priming though... that's fine...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priming_%28psychology%29

 

Read that... then you'll understand better.  One biased question pollutes an entire survey.