Home About Chat Users Issues Party Candidates Polling Firms Media News Polls Calendar Key Races United States President Senate House Governors International

New User Account
"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource." 
Email: Password:

  Wisconsin Standoff: Rasmussen's Leading Questions
NEWS DETAILS
Parent(s) PollingFirm 
ContributorArmyDem 
Last EditedArmyDem  Mar 02, 2011 01:02am
Logged 0
CategoryCommentary
MediaWebsite - Huffington Post
News DateMonday, February 21, 2011 07:00:00 AM UTC0:0
DescriptionFirst Posted: 02/21/11 06:24 PM

WASHINGTON -- Amid the ongoing protests and legislative standoff in Wisconsin, a new automated Rasmussen Reports survey purports to show more Americans backing Republican Gov. Scott Walker than the public employee unions. Additional national survey data is not yet available on this issue, but there are good reasons to be skeptical of the Rasmussen poll, which in this case appears to lead respondents to a desired result.

Any pollster attempting to measure reactions to a public policy debate faces a big challenge in the large number of Americans who will know little or nothing about an issue. Some will have well-formed attitudes to share, others will be less familiar and will form opinions on the spot in response to the text of the questions presented.

In this case, Rasmussen begins by asking respondents how closely they have been following the Wisconsin controversy and reports that 37 percent say they are following the story very closely and a total of 67 percent at least somewhat closely. Presumably the remaining third say they are following the story not closely or not at all (based on how Rasmussen has asked about news stories in the past). How those not following the story closely react to the language of the questions that follow is critical.

Here is what Rasmussen asked, in order, on their automated telephone survey of 1,000 likely voters nationwide conducted this past Friday and Saturday:
Share
ArticleRead Full Article

NEWS
Date Category Headline Article Contributor

DISCUSSION