Poll method checking

Captain Ed catches Newsweek oversampling Democrats in a recent poll on Bush’s approval ratings, and who would beat who in a head to head matchup for president among the current hopefuls on both sides of the aisle.

Is there a liberal agenda driving Newsweek?

Nah …

8 Responses to "Poll method checking"

Doc Washboard says:

May 6, 2007 at 8:40 pm

Question 26 in the poll:

“Do you consider yourself a Republican, Democrat, or Independent?”

I’m no expert on polling techniques, so I’ll listen to anyone who can straighten me out on this, but doesn’t the question suggest that the party affiliation was determined after the person chose to participate in the poll, rather than before? Also: in light of the recent election results, wouldn’t one expect to see more people now self-identifying as Democrats? That would go along with the fact that so many Democratic candidates were elected.
Lorica says:

May 6, 2007 at 10:11 pm

You know I am not much of a cynic, but I seriously doubt there are that many more Democrats in this country. If so J. F’ing would have won in 2004 hands down, but as we know, he didn’t. – Lorica
Doc Washboard says:

May 6, 2007 at 11:37 pm

You’re probably right. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that there’s a certain amount of bandwagon-jumping that takes place after an election, especially among the “leaners.” You know: go with the winner. Now they’ll self-identify as Democrats. Somewhere down the road after a big Republican victory, it might go the other way.
Great White Rat says:

May 6, 2007 at 11:56 pm

Doc, that would serve as a control on the polling organization, if they strive for accuracy.

If their poll results skew heavily toward one party or the other, when all other factors indicate a much narrower margin, then they should examine their methodology and sampling to find the source of the error, rather than rushing to print with it.

The fact that Newsweek chose to ignore the warning flags instead of revisiting their polling procedures tells me that they are either terminally sloppy or reliably biased. Given the body of their past work, it’s not difficult to conclude the latter choice is the true one.
camojack says:

May 7, 2007 at 4:03 am

Surprised?!
vatar says:

May 7, 2007 at 5:31 am

Typically you see about 55%-45% female to male ratio in this kind of poll. Females tend to be more Democratic than men. I notice that they didn’t give the sex ratio for this poll.
Drewsmom says:

May 7, 2007 at 5:49 am

Lets face the facts here folks, ALL of the msm is biased except Fox, PERIOD. Its been proved over and over and over.
This is just another hit piece on Conservatives and I’m getting sick and damned tired of it.
Iowa Voice » » Newsweek Thinks We’re A Bunch Of Boobs says:

May 7, 2007 at 8:11 am

[…] Also, ST has a comment on this, as well. Bookmark to: Posted by: Brian in: Main Stream Media, Politics, Polls, 2008 Elections at 7:00 am Permalink | trackback (right click and save) | […]

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