Dueling Polls
CBS News says an astounding 77% of Americans haven’t heard enough about Samuel Alito to say whether they favor his confirmation. That’s such a staggering figure that the credibility of the poll itself must be immediately called into question (unless, of course, the people surveyed were the same people who sat on the Michael Jackson and O.J. Simpson juries).
Thus, the other interesting result of the poll is suspect as well, but for what it’s worth, here you go:
After 9/11, President Bush authorized government wiretaps on some phone calls in the U.S. without getting court warrants, saying this was necessary in order to reduce the threat of terrorism. Do you approve or disapprove of the President doing this?
Approve 49%
Disapprove 48%
Interestingly, more Democrats than Republicans were surveyed (even after adjusting or weighing the numbers). Of course, this is in direct opposition to the AP/Ipsos poll that showed the margin 56-42 against ‘warrantless’ eavesdropping in a similarly worded question.
Indeed, a look at another poll of quite recent vintage raises more red flags on the CBS numbers. Survey USA offers the following:
30% of USA adults go into the hearings certain that Alito is qualified to serve on the High Court. 14% of adults go into the hearings certain that Alito is not qualified to serve on the High Court. 36% of Americans, the largest group, are waiting to hear from Alito this week before making up their minds.
In other words, 77% undecided in one poll (again, a number that is frankly beyond belief), and 36% in the other. That’s an incredible discrepancy. Something is wrong here, and on the basis of common sense, I’d say the CBS poll has no better worth than bird cage lining, if you catch my drift…
Here’s another poll out on Alito. A bit more common sense but believe what you want. In my opinion, Media polls are done to write stories to push specific points of view.
According to the latest Washington Post–ABC News poll, 53 percent of Americans say Alito should be confirmed by the Senate. Only 27 percent say he should be rejected. Twenty percent remains undecided.
Remember cBS was rated as the 2nd most left wing leaning media outlet by the UCLA/MU study released a few weeks ago.
Yes, good catch – I had seen that number, but I forgot where when I was putting the post together – so three polls, three substantially different results (we’re not talking just a few percentage points)…
Brings all new meaning to the phrase “margin of error”, huh?
Interestingly, the National Bar Association was vehemently against Roberts, yet they are not forthcoming with one single word about Alito on their site. It would stand to reason that Kennedy’s statement that Alito had not one single opinion in favor of people of color in racial discrimination cases would provoke their ire. Kennedy’s statement was quickly refuted though by (I believe) Sam Brownback. Since civil rights are a central point in this particular nomination (aside from the pervasive abortion issue) I would think the NBA would have had an opinion by now.