tecoyah

In an attempt to reveal how polling can be manipulated....I prpose a series of experiments.
I will list three polls that will ask the same question....worded to extract a certain result, Please answer in complete non-partisan honesty.

And Thank you for participating.

Poll #1

Do you support the Office of The President of the United States?

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nanofever

Do you mean the concept of a president, GWB the current president or the actual office where the president conducts his business?

I'm voting "questions asked deliberately without context to provoke a certain response are a step above 100^10 monkeys going for Shakespeare on the futility scale".

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Originally Posted by Norseman on another forum:
"Yeah, the problem with the world is the stupid people are all cocksure of themselves and the intellectuals are full of doubt."

Dwayne

I do not support the Presidential office. We should deal away with the presidential office. This office gives men way to much power no matter who they are. When we elect someone to that office we loose total control over what they do. I would like to see a republic where all officials are elected by different parts of the nation, and then the elected officials elect a leader to act as observer and "peace keeper" over everything they do. Then use local internet polls every month to do approval ratings of that locations elected official. If his rating drops below 50, a special election should be held to consider a replacment for them.

Tophat665

Of course I support the office (all though, in a way this is kind of a silly question, like asking if one favors motherhood or the law of gravity.) In fact, it is my strong support of the office as much as anything else that feed my contempt for George Bush.

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Blackthorn

Moving on to #2 .... *fingers crossed for hope*

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irateplatypus

haha

i'm pretty sure i know the point tecoyah is going to try to make... but i doubt he counted on only 2/3 of the votes being yes on this one.

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~ Winston Churchill

Ustwo

Nah #3 is the golden question of polling

A lot of questionable polls won't release the actual questions for this reason.

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tecoyah

Actually....I fully expected to see almost 100% yes in the first poll. The idea here is in the way a question is asked in an attempt to create the illusion of favorable/negative numbers.

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Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha

irateplatypus

i'm w/ya tecoyah... i thought the way the question was phrased would yield a 95% or so... i'm baffled.

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If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

~ Winston Churchill

Ustwo

Well we have a good number of non-US citizen types here don't ya know.

__________________
Agents of the enemies who hold office in our own government, who attempt to eliminate our "freedoms" and our "right to know" are posting among us, I fear.....on this very forum. - host

Obama - Know a Man by the friends he keeps.

Stompy

I voted no. I live in the US.

It's proving a point though, the question was vague.

Do you support the Office of The President of the United States?

Do I support the Office as in... his secretaries or the building itself?

Do I support the president in general, or the current one? Past 10 years?

Do I support what it stands for? Do I support it with the thought that the president is honest?

Eh, too many "it could mean this.." so I just voted no since, to me, it was referring to supporting the president REGARDLESS - and of course that's a no because it depends on who it is and what they stand for!

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xepherys

Oh... I thought you meant the Oval Office... like the room... where the President sits. I like ovals...

:-p I posted to #2 first... Now I get your point. This has long been my standing argument on statistics. I can make a poll or ask questions or perform experiements in such a way as to almost always produce the results I actually desire. *shrug* What can ya do?!