It's all Poll-itical

Pollsters often use a technique known as "push polling" where the question is designed to elicit a particular response. Most of us understand this technique exists and discount polls accordingly. Regardless, the 24-hour news cycle devours polls like a shark in a seal colony. A great tool to unravel that kind of "technique" is pollster.com. But I digress …

This week the talking heads were flogging two totally unsurprising polls. First, the President's job approval ratings are down (yawn). This happens to every inhabitant of the Oval Office over time. The second is that a majority of the public has shifted (what took them so long?) and no longer believes that it is the role of government to provide health care coverage (Gallup). On a scale of 1-10 I rate that a solid "Duh!"

Here are two more polls. First, according to Frank Luntz, more people (61% to 14%) believe scientists will find life in outer space than believe that the current proposed health care plans won't add a penny to the deficit. Second, Rasmussen reports that only 4% of U.S. voters believe that most politicians keep their campaign promises. Half of those polled believe politicians lie deliberately in an effort to get elected.