For anyone interested:
This is question 72 referenced above…
Q.72 You hear a lot of things about each of the candidates. When thinking about the possibility of voting for John Kerry, please tell me how reassuring you would find each of the following. Please tell me whether you find each
very reassuring,
somewhat reassuring,
a little reassuring or
not at all reassuring?
73 John Kerry says, make no mistake, I will hunt
down and kill the terrorists before they attack us.
74 John Kerry says his religious faith has shaped
his values and his commitment to families and his
commitment to battle for those who are less
fortunate and less powerful.
75 John Kerry broke with his own party to
support a balanced budget and thinks it is morally
wrong that we’ve now created the biggest deficits
in history. He will work with both parties to cut
the deficit in half.
76 Kerry is committed to cutting middle class
taxes - abolition of the marriage penalty, credits
for college tuition and increasing the child tax
credit.
77 Kerry’s health care plan is based on giving
Americans more choices, lowering costs, and
helping people get affordable private health
insurance. He opposes any kind of government
take over of health care.
I’d call that a marketing survey, and not a push poll. It was a real attempt to find the best way to promote Kerry. It wasn’t an attempt to push someone toward a desired response.
And regarding the hypothetical question about Bush, Iraq, and oil. It’s about 100 times more likely to describe a true scenario than the health care question. So, I would not be particularly upset about the question.
A relevant real world comparison was when Bricker recently asked (in GD) if people were okay with Harvey Milk outing the gay man who stopped Squeaky Frome from shooting Ford. Almost no one was.
Seems clear to me as well, esp when considering that such was Mr Carville’s main thrust as a political adviser. A real push poll has some shit to it, not merely an innocuous inquiry to ascertain where political leverage may be gained.
Senator Throckmorton is reported to have buggered farm animals while reading aloud from atheist tracts. How does this knowledge affect your attitude to the Godless sodomite?
Not to mention that the poll also had a series of questions in which both negative and positive things were associated with both candidates. And it wasn’t funded or sent out by the DNC, was it?
I can’t say for sure but I think Kerry actually did say at least some, and maybe all, of those things. In any case, they’re not on a par with the question in the OP.
Its reminiscent of an old favorite Fox Gnaws ploy: “people are saying” followed hard on by a suggestion too foul and repulsive to pass muster in any civilized context. But, innocently! For, after all, they are simply reporting a fact, that people are saying something. And they are saying that, they just did say that!
Clearly, then, people are saying it. So its nothing more than the simple truth, now isn’t it?! You certainly cannot claim biased reporting or slanted polling when something is just a fact, now can you?
A lot of people have left the party. We’re down to 21%. That’s an enormous drop since the election. And since the Dems have also dipped (slightly) and 3rd parties have only increased slightly, most of those folks haven’t bailed because there was a better option, but just because the current leadership and platform are unacceptable to them.
