Yeah, yeah you hate FOX News. Get over it as I think we all know how opposed some are to it. Whining about it here won't do anything to further emphasize your point. This recent poll from FOX has interesting tidbits for people from all sides of the political spectrum. http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/011807_foxnewspoll.pdf Here are the most interesting findings. The number is the question number for your convenience. Don't ever say I'm not a man of the people 1. George Bush's Overall Approval Rating: 38% 2. 1% of respondents have never heard of the Democratic Party. 1% of the Independents have never heard of George Bush. 11. 12% of Republicans polled think the election of a woman as Speaker of the House will make a negative effect on the country. (100% of halfbreed thinks "make a negative effect" is a dumb word choice) 17. 59% of Democrats polled would stop funding the war altogether (although in their defense, the question is worded awkwardly) 19. 34% of Democrats (22% overall) claim they WANT the surge of troops to fail. 29. Around 60% of all categories (D, R, I, All) think the surge is President Bush’s last chance for victory in Iraq. Percentage of Respondents as Self-Identified: Democrat - 40% Republican - 33% Independent - 22% Other - 3% Refused/Don't Know - 2% I always take polls with a grain of salt so all of this is, of course, salty. (Insert your lame joke about how FOX polls deserve a mountain of salt here). Anything else on there catch anyone's attention?
If you think about it, being a political pollster has got to be one sweet gig. You sit around and make up questions. A computer calls people and you read the questions. Even if the results are wrong nobody really cares.
I once got polled regarding a gasoline survey. I decided to just give fake answers. One of the questions they asked me was: How much would you pay at most per gallon of gasoline? My answer was $50 per gallon. The surveyor proceeded to the next question without missing a beat.
That question, like a lot in this poll, is really poorly worded... Do you personally want the Iraq plan President Bush announced last week to succeed? I suspect a lot of people read this as a question for or against the surge plan... the idea itself, not for or against the military success of the troops after they get there. This is exacerbated by the previous question asking about the plan and strategy changes... and some of the questions are incredibly biased against Dems and/or worded in a way not to far from caricature.
I noted where I thought the wording was weird but that one was pretty straightforward. I don't see how you can mistake "Do you personally want the Iraq plan President Bush announced last week to succeed." It's pretty straightforward. As I said, I don't generally believe polls and this one is no different but it's still kinda weird that that many gave that reply.
I guess that could be confusing to some. I don't see how anyone would immediately think that, however. I stand corrected, though.
God, I can't believe I just read that entire poll. What a cocked up piece of BS. Convoluted questions screwy enough to make Granny cry uncle. Could questions be more clearly designed to confuse those expected to answer them? I'll tell you what I got from the poll. 40% of the public consider themselves Democrats. A third consider themselves Republicans, and the remainder are independents, except for Major and rhester. Far more independents, the people who make the difference in the elections, agree with Democratic positions than Republican ones. Fox News cares a lot about Donald Trump and Rosie O'Donnell... far more than anyone else does. Fox News went way out of it's way to create a poll that might, just might, produce something that could be used to attack Democrats and Democratic positions on the issues. They failed, and you fell for it, halfbreed. D&D. Poll is just a Word.
I made it abundantly clear in my post that I didn't take any of the allegations or findings seriously.
