I really want to urge Democrats not to believe any Rasmussen poll that can’t be tested by an actual election. Every opinion poll that they put out seems unhelpful and demoralizing to Democrats, and they rarely agree with other polling (when other polling is available). It has gotten to the point that I am suspicious about whether Rasmussen is even conducting the polls that they’re releasing. You can get the result you want from a poll if you know how to tweak the questions or the methodology (e.g., the sample). But, why bother? If your poll results can’t be verified by comparison to actual outcomes, then you’re free to just release made up data. If Rasmussen’s election polls were to come out as badly as, say, Zogby’s, then people would dismiss their polling on health care or wiretapping or the president’s popularity or teabagging birthers. But Rasmussen, in my opinion, is using the credibility that they gained as a decent election polling outfit to dupe people into believing phony polling data on the events of the day. Maybe Nate Silver can figure out a way to test this theory, but I believe I am right about this.
Job One for the Right is to convince Congress that the people are opposed to health care reform despite having voted for it rather explicitly in the last two election cycles. Bogus polling helps that cause. Crazy yelling constituents helps that cause. But those things are distortions. The only polls that should be trusted are internal Democratic polls.
Rasmussen didn’t get their tag as being a Republican pollster for nothing … they always had higher approvals for W. … so why is it a surprise that they have lower approvals for Obama?
And to add two things … one of which I forgot .. and one I didn’t know ..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasmussen_Reports
Rasmussen was paid by Bush-Cheney ’04(shocker!! .. I know) .. and that Rasmussen is based in Asbury Park, NJ .. has anyone been there lately? .. has the revitalization gotten off the ground?
There was a Gallup poll the other day measuring how Obama was handling healthcare. It was pretty worthless because if you wanted him to be more aggressive you didn’t like how he was handling it, and if you hated him because he’s black and is going to kill granny then you didn’t like he was handling it.
It would be interesting if they polled people if they liked Medicare and if they’d like healthcare set up like Medicare. But of course that would actually clarify what people want. The pollsters aren’t in that business.
How convenient of them. On the Newshour yesterday, David Brooks twice stated that the public was against health care reform. I emailed them, challenging his remarks. Every poll I’ve seen indicates people favor reform by an overwhelming margin. Still, even given that poll, you have to parse their conclusions pretty selectively to conclude that a “majority of the American people are against it.”
And as far as that goes, if what comes out of the Senate committees is as watered down as it sounds like it might be, then maybe passing no bill at all might actually be a better outcome. But that’s still a far cry from being against health care reform.
Which is why Gallup asked about how Obama was handling the healthcare issue. That way you can lump in people who want Obama to be more forceful and people who hate Obama and misinterpret that as the majority of people being against healthcare reform. It’s a very intentional strategy to misrepresent the American people’s will.
Rasmussen had a poll earlier this year showing 3/4 of the public against higher taxes for New Jersey. But other pollsters asked questions that included income limits and the like, and got 3/4 in favor of higher taxes on the rich.
Rassmussen is doing its job: helping to kill Obamacare one partisan poll at a time. It gives the GOP lies and liars the credibility they need to go on the Sunday shows and say “America hates the deeply unpopular Obamacare program and the deeply unpopular Obama.”
Then they play the liberal media card on the rest of the polls, and those who are looking for cover to dislike a non-white President in an increasingly non-white America have it.
Mission Accomplished.