Iraqi Opinion Polls–All But Worthless
Don’t miss Michael Totten’s latest, which explores why you can’t trust opinion polls of people in Iraq.
Anyone who’s ever lived in a totalitarian society, or knows people who were, know that what he’s saying is almost certainly correct. Which is why we can more accurately guage how the average Iraqi feels by how they vote and how they spend their money rather than on what they tell opinion pollsters.
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1 comment
I don’t trust hardly any poll at any time under any circumstances. They’re just too easy to manipulate by phrasing and question choice, using basic psychology. And of course, they’re orders of magnitude easier to manipulate when you’ve got a gun to the pollee’s head.
And they’re easy to scam too, especially the automated ones. Since I’m a PA voter, I‘ve been polled 4 times in the past few weeks (I won’t be able to sit right for a month…).
Anyway, I hung up on the first two, but decided to have some fun from there on out. In the third poll, I responded as a 25 YO black male who’s voting for McCain. In the other, I was a 40 YO Hispanic female who strongly dislikes Hillary, and trusts Obama. But I do think Obama should quit attending his church…..
In the past, I have received very detailed polls directly from politicians asking where I stand on certain issues. I do take those seriously, and always take the time to answer them honestly.
But this “Who do you trust more? Who do you like/dislike? Should Obama quit his church?” stuff plays right into the hands of the “whatever way the wind blows today” politicians. And I’m not going to help them.
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