Posted on 03/01/2006 12:58:30 PM PST by Kaslin
It appears that every other day there's a new poll released on President George Bush's job approval rating. The majority of these polls or surveys are conducted by news organizations or polling companies contracted by news organizations. Many American's believe these poll results are accurate and still trust the news organizations to conduct them fairly.
However, the blogosphere and talk radio uncovered a bit of hanky-panky going on at CBS once again. No, they didn't use forged documents again -- and those responsible for the use of fraudulent memos used to damage the Bush presidency are gone from CBS News, including Mary Mapes and Dandy Dan Rather.
This time we're talking about a CBS poll that showed President Bush's approval rating at an all time low of 34%. For the last few months, American's were fed a steady diet of bad news regarding Bush or members of his administration. From torture to spying to an accidental shooting to the Dubai ports controversy, there's never a shortage of news stories that show the President of the United States in a less than favorable light.
And so most people will accept without question the results of this latest poll even if it does come from the obvious Bush-haters at CBS News.
So, in an effort to turn the findings of bloggers and talk hosts, who caught CBS monkeying with the poll numbers, into a non-story, they decided to "out" themselves on their website, albeit in the guise of explaining how polls are conducted.
CBS News explained to readers what most pollsters do when they conduct their telephone surveys, and then they dropped this little bomb in the midst of their explanation: Bush's favorability poll was weighted in favor of Democrats.
Bush's 34% approval rating is a result of polling 37% Democrats, 28% Republicans and 35% other or independents. One can only imagine the affiliations of that 35%. Are they Libertarians? Socialists? Communists? Are some extreme right-wing militia-types, who hate Bush as much as the left?
But just the divide between Democrats and Republicans is noticeably suspect. Nine percent fewer people who identified themselves as Republicans were polled. That is far from insignificant when one realizes "the other or independent" respondents are 7% higher than the Republican respondents, as well.
Also, the poll fails to differentiate between registered voters, likely voters or people who don't even know they can vote. Does CBS or their pollsters screen these respondents in the Independent category? How many are registered with the Green Party, Libertarian Party, Socialist Party, Reform Party, Liberal Party or Conservative Party, and how many are truly independents?
Granted, there are no perfect polls, but a poll released by CBS News is always deserving of further scrutiny
But, what do you make of the 85% who believed that they were there to retaliate for Saddam's role in 9-11, or the 77% who thought it was to keep Saddam from protecting al Quaida?
Just goes to show.... fake news creates fake polls.
The answer that we should stay as long as possible got the highest percentage, at 29%. Like I said, there were 5 choices, and it's obvious one will "spread the field" as it were with that many choices.
What's his personal approval rating? Recall they only ran the job approval rating during Monical for Clinton because Bubba's personal approval rating tanked. Shouldn't we know both for W?
Rush was initially against the deal until he investigated. His investigation changed his mind.
I had always been for it. Thought it was a no brainer.
I wouldn't trust a CBS poll if it told me 90% of respondents thought the Sun was hot.
Anyone who believes a single thing CBS reports these days is a complete moron.
Some people can't be helped
If a news source loses its credibility, what else does it have? Entertainment value?
I agree. What folks NEED to do is to turn off the MSM and cancel their subscriptions to TIME/NEWSWEAK.
Independents = those who get their news from John Stewart, Letterman, or Leno.
It pains me dearly to defend a SeeBS push poll, but that complaint is not fair.
Its one thing to poll, "What American's think" and another to poll, "Who American's will elect".
To require all polls reflect the later is asking for polls to be biased in our favor.
Rassmussen showed a similar decline in poll level for Bush over the same time period as CBS. Maybe the absolute level is wrong but the poll does indicate that Bush is headed in the wrong direction and he's heading that way quickly.
Dave
Disgusting, but what more can you expect from a dinosaur media with an agenda?
Actually, "stay as long as possible" wasn't an option. "Stay as long as they are needed" was, and it got 23%. The 29% answer was "leave immediately." The combined total for those who thought the exit should be somewhere between ASAP and one year was 72%, making Jack Murtha look like Carnac. (http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1075) What bothers me, though, is the astronomical number of those in harm's way who apparently have no clue why they're there. I find this, if even close to true, very troubling.
Personal approval: 29%
Applause. You get the apple for the day. Excellent post.
Did ya see who sponsored the poll? Le Moyne College's Center for Peace and Global Studies. They're way out there in the "blame American for everything" far left crowd. The crowd Cindy Sheehan hangs around with.
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