The Danger Of Policy By Polls…
…is that polls change frequently, and give often contradictory information depending on how the questions are phrased. As an example, a lot of the President’s supporters (including me) did a little crowing (and a lot of his political opponents cried foul) when an ABC News/Washington Post poll showed a 2/3 majority approving of the NSA’s phone database. A Newsweek poll released the very next day, however, shows the following:
53 percent of Americans think the NSA’s surveillance program “goes too far in invading people’s privacy,” while 41 percent see it as a necessary tool to combat terrorism.
…Americans think the White House has overstepped its bounds: 57 percent said that in light of the NSA data-mining news and other executive actions, the Bush-Cheney Administration has “gone too far in expanding presidential power.” That compares to 38 percent who think the Administration’s actions are appropriate.
Yesterday, I wrote of the need for the government to have the consent of the governed. These poll results, and low approval ratings, suggest the Administration has much work to do in this regard. Yet another reason to work with Congress on a new, explicitly legal regulatory framework for surveillance…
These opposing poll results indicate how polling can be manipulated to produce any desired result by asking questions in specific manners. Another reason I pay very little if any attention to LSM poll results, they’re skewed. The only poll that matters is the one on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
The LSM uses polls to write stories to prove their point of view and discredit others.
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