Althouse: "It was less risky to have a useless poll than one that actually measured where health care stands with voters."

September 25, 2009

"It was less risky to have a useless poll than one that actually measured where health care stands with voters."

Mickey Kaus channels paranoia.

12 comments:

traditionalguy said...: There is a truth in there somewhere... To provide cheap single payer across the board while it would rape the people in existing good plans(remember the unions and the Federal Employees are exempted) and Medicare, it could mildly help to reduce labor costs and return some outflow of industrial production from the USA. BUT, then the Cap and Trade Tax energy cost trippling is slapped right back on and totally destroys all industrial production in the USA. Gee thanks, President Obama for all the help you are giving to someone, but not to a single living American who works to support themselves.; 9/25/09, 12:32 PM
miller said...: Somehow I think I won't be better off with this Clown-in-Chief in charge.; 9/25/09, 12:47 PM
Angst said...: My favorite line from the poll from the bottom of page 24:

(Sorry, I had to pivot the data because I can't get blogger to format the data way similar to the Times poll.)

Party Affiliation 9/19 - 9-23
Rep 22
DEM 37
Ind 33
DK/NA 7

Question - are there really almost twice as many registered Dem's as Rep's; 9/25/09, 1:01 PM
Angst said...: Ok, one more observation from the NY Times poll:

(from near the top of page 23, data pivoted again)

"Who did you vote for in 2008 ..."
Obama 38
McCain 28
Someone else 4
Won't say 4
Didn't vote 25
DK/NA 2

So out of a total of 101 samples (I'm guessing these numbers are all times ten since the poll states that they contacted 1,042 people?) - there were 74 people who voted in the last election in their poll. This gives the following percentage by candidate:

Obama 51.3%
McCain 38%
Someone else 5%
Won't say 5%

Does this seem correct?; 9/25/09, 1:25 PM
avwh said...: Nice work, Angst.

It's pretty clearly a cooked poll; under-sampling Republicans.

Kaus never seemed to drink the kool-aid, did he?; 9/25/09, 1:28 PM
Anonymous said...: Kaus doesn't drink the Kool-Aid for any particular politician or party, but he is hell bent on a government takeover of the health care sector.; 9/25/09, 2:38 PM
Anonymous said...: I can't believe these clowns are going to shove this health care bill through over the objections of most of America...but then they have been blind to reality to date, so I guess it's probable; hence these manufactured polls that supposedly support it. The media just cannot sell out enough.; 9/25/09, 3:02 PM
phosphorious said...: I think Obama should stop clowning around and leave the clowning around to all the other clowns in the clowning business. I mean, who does he think hes clowning?

Am I right?; 9/25/09, 3:13 PM
The Drill SGT said...: Angst said...
Question - are there really almost twice as many registered Dem's as Rep's

LOL,

The sample fits the NYT readership :); 9/25/09, 4:05 PM
Anonymous said...: Am I right?

I guess you're right, Phos. We certainly defer to your expertise on being a clown.; 9/25/09, 5:10 PM
Alex said...: Good article about "Wal Mart, class and weight":

http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/09/weight_and_class.php

The money quote:

"i remember walking through harvard yard back in 1986 during the university's celebration of its 350th anniversary. the place was awash in alums, and there was something noticeably different about most of these people. it wasn't that they were expensively dressed or looked like preppies, i realized. it's that almost everyone was so *trim.* none of these people would likely be found shopping in wal-mart, where waistlines look a lot different.

I totally get that.; 9/25/09, 6:00 PM
Mark said...: Kaus doesn't drink the Kool-Aid for any particular politician or party, but he is hell bent on a government takeover of the health care sector.

What that means is Kaus is an honest Liberal. I respect that. Wish there were more like him (honest reporters/pundits/advocates) on all sides of the issues.; 9/25/09, 7:37 PM