Another poll story to dismiss -- if we can even figure it out
The Chronicle has a poorly edited Knight Ridder Tribune News service story about President Bush's latest poll numbers. It's poorly edited because there are two polls mentioned -- Gallup and CBS News -- but no clue as to which results belong to what poll. It's a very strange piece.
Perhaps we should attribute it to Friday night on a holiday weekend. Who knows, but it appears to be a chopped-up piece, and someone at the Chronicle made the decision to run it.
We can go to USA Today and see first hand that the Gallup poll has suspect numbers:
The poll also found an increased number of Democrats. In this survey, 37% said they were Democrats and 32% said they were Republicans. Last week, 32% said they were Democrats and 35% said they were Republicans.
So, last week's poll surveyed 32% Democrats to 35% Republicans and this week the numbers are 37% Democrats to 32% Republicans. You don't think that could have contributed to the president's "drop" in numbers? What does this say about the previous week's numbers? This is why polling has shown time and again to be suspect.
I love this paragraph from the USA Today story:
The new poll found the largest drop for Bush came among men, self-described conservatives and churchgoers.
Well, duh! If one week Gallup is polling more Republicans than the next week and the number of Democrats polled shoots up, it stands to reason the new poll would show a drop in conservative supporters for President Bush.
Here is a Seattle Times story that appears to be a longer version of the Knight Ridder Tribune News service story the Chronicle used, although this story never mentions the CBS News poll. Did someone at the Chronicle just throw that reference in?
RELATED: CBS News poll
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/26/05 09:15 AM | Print |
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