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Jordan Peterson says he spoke to a senior government adviser who told him Canada’s COVID restriction policies are completely driven by opinion polls and not science. “In relation to the COVID restrictions, I talked to a senior adviser to one of the provincial governments a couple of weeks ago,” said Peterson. “He told me flat out that the COVID policy here is driven by nothing but opinion polls related to the popularity of the government,” he added. “No science, no endgame in sight, no real plan, and so what that means is that the part of the population that is...

Freeper Alert just in time to make your opinion on the most important person for the entire year a Winner in this annual poll.

They are of some use in predicting election results but need to be reviewed carefully to be understood. The article is based on my limited understanding as a layman, so please take it for whatever it may be worth. Sample composition Lunatic asylum Public opinion polling is based on a sample of the relevant population as a whole within a given survey area, with margin of error calculations of the degree to which the sample size approaches perfect randomness. Polls attempting to predict how many will vote for one presidential candidate versus another use party affiliation as one means of...

We tend to accept as factual whatever we want to believe and reject the rest. Jim Geraghty's Morning Jolt today had a piece about reactions to a satirical post by Roger Simon (not Roger L. Simon of PJ Media) stating that Governor Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan, had disparaged him by, among other things, referring to him as "Stench." Mr. Simon's piece was taken seriously by many, from MSNBC to Mediaite and even by one of the world's most prolific unintentional humorists, Paul Krugman. Fox News stated, Krugman, a blogger for MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and a host of other liberal...

Voters believe too much government power is a dangerous thing and put a very high value on protecting the rights of the individual. Sixty-five percent (65%) of Likely U.S. Voters agree with the statement that a government powerful enough to do everything you want is also powerful enough to take away everything you have. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that only 23% disagree with that statement. Eleven percent (11%) are not sure about it. (To see survey question wording, click here.) The survey of 1,000 Likely U.S. Voters was conducted on April 16-17, 2012 by Rasmussen Reports....

In an ABC News poll that was released Monday evening, most Americans indicate that the government's response to the Gulf oil disaster is worse than that of Hurricane Katrina. 69% rate the Obama Administration's handling of the crisis negatively, while the Bush Administration's negatives on its handling of Katrina rose to only 62%. The poll also says that by a 2-to-1 margin, Americans believe that those responsible for the oil disaster should face criminal charges. BP's negatives are even worse.

In a poll released yesterday and reported Thursday evening on the Fox News' Bill O'Reilly program, 59% of Americans now disapprove of Obama's handling of the Gulf oil spill. The results of the poll were reported in a segment with radio commentator Laura Ingraham. Video Here. As Obama and the Administration come under increasing fire for their lackadaisical approach to the mounting problems created by the spill, which is moving closer to large stretches of beaches along the Gulf shoreline, the mainstream media has generally failed to report the widespread public dissatisfaction with Obama. Instead, the media has chosen to...

In the first five weeks after ObamaCare's passage, Americans favored repeal by a whopping 16 points (56 to 40 percent), according to Rasmussen's poll of likely voters. Now, in the wake of developments such as the news that ObamaCare has actually prompted major corporations to discuss the possibility of dropping their employer-sponsored health plans, that number has risen to 19 points (56 to 37) -- and to 28 points among independents (60 to 32 percent). Independents actually favor repeal by more than Democrats oppose it (34 percent of Democrats support repeal, while 58 percent oppose it). Nineteen points is bigger...

The rising wave of popular activism in the United States is ritually derided by liberal commentators, politicians and academics as fringe-movement politics. But recent polling reveals that skepticism about government is broad and deep. Discontent with Washington has become the mainstream position; those who defend big government are the real extremists.

Despite the fact that Barack Obama took his campaign road show to the heartland to drum up support for his newly passed ObamaCare bill, the passage of the bill into law by Obama and the Democrats has sent their approval ratings dropping like a lead balloon. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke). Pelosi and the Democrats' 'victory march' through a sea of citizen protesters against the healthcare bill. The Gallup Organization is reporting today that Democrats now have their lowest approval rating in history. In addition, pollster Scott Rasmussen reports that public approval for the repeal of ObamaCare has reached its highest...

The public is in an ugly mood regarding politics. For the country, this anger may represent a turning point. For politicians in Washington, it is just business as usual. Can they be this tone deaf? Does their arrogance prevent them from recognizing what is happening? According to Rasmussen: "A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 63% of likely voters believe, generally speaking, that it would be better for the country if most incumbents in Congress were defeated this November." Despite these signals, Washington is unable or unwilling to change direction. Proposed and enacted policies have been rejected by...

For any candidate, independents are the most important voters. In most cases they are the difference between winning and losing. This was especially true in the last presidential campaign. Independents went for Obama in a huge way, and they were one of the keys to his victory. Independent voters are abandoning the President faster than people driving out of town just before a hurricane hits. According to the IBD/TIPP poll since February support for the President among independents has dropped from 73% to 45%. And even worse for the POTUS, the President has lost independent support on the Economy, Health...

Still reeling from the worst month of his Presidency in terms of waning public support for his program initiatives, Barack Obama got even more bad news in the Sunday polling data:

Is the fate of our corporations and its leaders in the hands of a president making economic decisions by opinion poll? Will CEO heads roll because of a Gallup-ian thumbs down from the angry crowd? The panel on this afternoon’s Hardball didn’t merely acknowledge that chilling possibility. Like a bloodthirsty crowd on a hot Roman afternoon, it blithely applauded it. Chris Matthews’ guests were WaPo’s Eugene Robinson and Chrystia Freeland of the Financial Times. CHRIS MATTHEWS: You know, I was worried that President Barack Obama may have gone too far in lopping off the head of a major CEO, you...

PRINCETON, NJ -- For the first time in Gallup's 25-year history of asking Americans about the trade-off between environmental protection and economic growth, a majority of Americans say economic growth should be given the priority, even if the environment suffers to some extent. Gallup first asked Americans about this trade-off in 1984, at which time over 60% chose the environmental option. Support for the environment was particularly high in 1990-1991, and in the late 1990s and 2000, when the dot-com boom perhaps made economic growth more of a foregone conclusion. The percentage of Americans choosing the environment slipped below 50%...

WASHINGTON - President Bush's public support has eroded to its lowest level yet, with the Iraq war dragging on, a top White House aide facing felony charges and the White House rushing to replace a failed Supreme Court nominee. A new AP-Ipsos poll found the president's approval rating was at 37 percent, compared with 39 percent a month ago. About 59 percent of those surveyed said they disapproved. The intensity of disapproval is the strongest to date, with 42 percent now saying they "strongly disapprove" of how Bush is handling his job — twice as many as the 20 percent...

RICHMOND, Virginia, October 26, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new poll conducted by Virginia Commonwealth University has revealed that support for stem cell research favors sources other than embryonic cells. When asked what they felt would yield the most promising results, 37% said stem cells derived from sources other than human embryos, whereas only 14% said human embryonic sources held the most promise for new medical treatments – a considerably different view than is reflected by most mainstream media coverage. From the report, it can be seen that public understanding of the stem cell research is still unclear. Sixty-seven percent of...

GUEST OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR A poorly devised exit poll question and a dose of spin are threatening to undermine our understanding of the 2004 presidential election. The news media has made much of the finding that a fifth of voters picked "moral values" as the most important issue in deciding their vote - as many as cited terrorism or the economy. The conclusion: moral values are ascendant as a political issue. The reporting accurately represents the exit poll data, but not reality. While morals and values are critical in informing political judgments, they represent personal characteristics far more than a discrete...

OP-ED COLUMNIST Every election year, we in the commentariat come up with a story line to explain the result, and the story line has to have two features. First, it has to be completely wrong. Second, it has to reassure liberals that they are morally superior to the people who just defeated them. In past years, the story line has involved Angry White Males, or Willie Horton-bashing racists. This year, the official story is that throngs of homophobic, Red America values-voters surged to the polls to put George Bush over the top. This theory certainly flatters liberals, and it is...

Public opinion, a vulgar, impertinent, anonymous tyrant who deliberately makes life unpleasant for anyone who is not content to be the average man” -William Ralph IngeEveryday it seems nearly impossible to listen to a news program, visit a news or political website, or even check email, without being inundated with poll after annoying poll. Even in my daily discussions with friends and associates, I hear the constant regurgitation of such trite phrases as “most Americans are against”, “only a small number of Americans support”, or “most of people believe”. Who exactly are these “most people” anyway? And why should I...