Free-Falling? - Bush at 34%, Cheney at 18% — Page 2

My point was not to believe a poll just because it is spoon-fed to us by a media that is increasingly controlled by a smaller and smaller group of people. I dislike Bush also, but if the Dems rely on flawed info from polls, it's only going to hurt the party. I also glanced through the study and I couldn't find how they chose the sample that they polled. Was it a nationwide sample? Just a sample of key swing states? They really don't give you much information which should always make you wary of its results... Even if you want those results to be true.

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As usual, I'm curious why all the attention is put on pointing at who not to like. Where's the person they can point to and say, "Here, you should LIKE this"?

I am well aware that polls can be manipulated, that the way you asked the specific questions often determine the answers, and that they can be skewed based upon the audience polled.

But, both parties have used polls as evidence of how they are doing and where the trends are going with regard to the American public. Do I believe these numbers 100%, no. But do I believe they show a continuing trend of negativity and dissastifaction towards the this Administration and perhaps by association, the Republican party - yes.

In the past, many pollsters have been very accurate in predicting outcomes, that is of course until the last couple of elections, where there were either wholesale problems with the actual ballots used, or electronic voting machines were used.

While medai does in fact get smaller and smaller, and ownership more centralized, you would think intuitively that the isntitutions, if not the reporters, would begin to lean toward their economic best interests, which in the near term mean a shift towards the right. Whether or not that has happened is another discussion.

I am not sure of your point. Should I not look at the poll because there may be a bias in the question asker? If so, I should not watch most news, read most papers, or engage in conversations with most of the members of this board.

And DG - they have done some preliminary polls about 2008, but the Democrats have no one to lead them at this point. No one that has really stepped up nationally and said "I want to be President and fix this mess." All they do is throw Clinton in against Rice and McCain and see what happens.

DG, I don't think the focus is soley "who not to like," so much as it is looking critically -- as an informed populace -- at who's in power, and what the daily,weekly, monthly exercise of that power has provided us of late as a nation. Policy formation, policy execution, policy implementation on the international and domestic stages.

To observe closely, to evaluate, to analyze leadership against the context of a term of office, and the perceived effectiveness of our elected leaders's decisions -- surely these are viable tools in any democracy, indeed hallmarks of demoracy itself.

And no, after saying all of that ... I don't "like" him. I can't stand Bush's arrogance, his resolute incuriosity, his stubbornness, his abject anti-intellectual mindset, and his prediliction for using intolerance in the name of his religious reawakening to set policy that curbs the rights of others. I cannot wait for the day he's out of office and just about anyone replaces him. That's how "objective" I am at this point.

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From a frequent respondant's view:

Somehow or other, our phone number got on everyone's polling list. We've been polled by many different organizations that don't tell you whom they represent -- the right, the left, a corporation, a charity -- but inevitably, by the way the questions are slanted, you can tell which side they lean towards. Sometimes the questions are so slanted, there's no answer but the one they're forcing you into (with yes/no responses, I consider that being forced.) So regardless if it might help "my" side or not, I'll hang up on the poll.

Out of the thirty or so poll calls we get annually (way more in an election year), maybe two or three offer neutral enough questions that I can answer.

I take any poll result with a huge grain of salt. I'd love to see, along with the # of respondants, how many of their sample pool hung up prior to finishing the poll.

Updated On: 2/28/06 at 03:39 PM

DG - I can agree with you there, Republican or Democrat, it is never good to have one party control all three houses.

I wish a viable third party would emerge. But, until they somehow get the money out of politics, or publically fund campaigns, it will never happen.

And, in recognition of the inherent bias of most polls, I changed the thread title to include a question mark rather.

Updated On: 2/28/06 at 03:51 PM