{"id":180,"date":"2009-09-28T23:41:42","date_gmt":"2009-09-29T03:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/000af36.netsolhost.com\/wordpress1\/2009\/09\/28\/so-whats-a-poll-tell-you\/"},"modified":"2009-09-28T23:41:42","modified_gmt":"2009-09-29T03:41:42","slug":"so-whats-a-poll-tell-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/2009\/09\/28\/so-whats-a-poll-tell-you\/","title":{"rendered":"So What’s a Poll Tell You?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writing earlier today on News Commonsense<\/a>, I mentioned the fact<\/a> that if you believe polls, 9\/11 and sending our young men and women to die are somehow reasons to feel much better about how things are going in the States.<\/p>\n

Like I said, if you believe polls<\/a>\u2026.<\/p>\n

\n

When\u2026asked in another survey whether the government should \u201cstay out of Medicare\u201d \u2014 an impossibility \u2014 39 percent said yes. <\/p>\n

\u2026The results, however, are debatable \u2014 respondents might have said they wanted the government to \u201cstay out of Medicare\u201d because they don\u2019t want anyone to change the program \u2014 not because they don\u2019t know who runs it, for example. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So while they can\u2019t figure out how to ask a question that really tells us something, they decided to correct an oversight<\/p>\n

\n

And as for the Antichrist question [when 8% of New Jerseyans said Obama was], Jensen notes that they should have asked the same question about former President George W. Bush for comparison. They plan to remedy the error this week.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Don\u2019t know about you, but I can\u2019t wait!<\/p>\n

And then we have a pollster telling us why polls are important.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cSome would argue that we really shouldn\u2019t even be looking at public opinion, because it\u2019s not informed,\u201d acknowledges [Mark]Blumenthal. \u201cBut like it or not, we live in a democracy, and people get to vote every two years.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Which means public opinion \u2014 however it is derived \u2014 matters. So legislators hoping for clear-cut answers are probably out of luck \u2014 and should accept their fate, say several pollsters. <\/p>\n

\u201cPoliticians need to understand that voters are very comfortable having mutually contradictory views,\u201d says Democratic pollster Celinda Lake. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But <\/font>(and it is a big but)<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Unlike an election, there is no deadline for voters to make a decision about health care reform \u2014 and some never will. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So maybe, if the public doesn\u2019t get it by now, dragging it out any more won\u2019t educate them.  In fact, there\u2019s a sizable suspicion that they\u2019d only become more confused.<\/p>\n

So, ladies and gentleman of Washington, get \u2018er dun.  And when the world doesn\u2019t end and some folks even find things a little better, 2010 will take of itself. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the only poll that counts.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writing earlier today on News Commonsense, I mentioned the fact that if you believe polls, 9\/11 and sending our young men and women to die are somehow reasons to feel much better about how things are going in the States. Like I said, if you believe polls\u2026. When\u2026asked in another survey whether the government should… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}