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Posted by svens_bath on Mar-27-2005 16:25:

American politics: opinion polls

for the american TAs, which of these polls would you say would be most representative or accurate/unbiased? im asking becasue i dont know which of these sources are the most sensationalist etc. so would appreciate some help here.

cheers me dears.

out of these:

CBS poll
Harris Poll
CNN/USA Today/Gallus
Associated Press-Ipsos poll
Newsweek poll
Time poll
Fox news poll
NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll

??

Posted by MisterOpus1 on Mar-28-2005 16:34:

Re: American politics: opinion polls

quote:
Originally posted by svens_bath
for the american TAs, which of these polls would you say would be most representative or accurate/unbiased? im asking becasue i dont know which of these sources are the most sensationalist etc. so would appreciate some help here.

cheers me dears.

out of these:

CBS poll
Harris Poll
CNN/USA Today/Gallus
Associated Press-Ipsos poll
Newsweek poll
Time poll
Fox news poll
NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll

??

They all have their strengths and weaknesses. Gallup, for example, tends to have a propensity to poll a higher % of Republican voters vs. Democratic voters. Fox is surprisingly fair most of the time, though there have been occasions where it is a bit questionable. Harris and Zogby tend to be pretty accurate most of the time as well.

The best thing to do is not to take any 1 poll on a given issue, like the Presidential approval for example, but to take an overall consensus of the polls all together. On the aforementioned issue, right now Bush is somewhere between 43-47% approval rating. On the Schiavo issue, somewhere between 65-80% of respondents believed Congress should not have intervened, and that they did so for political reasons only. From a general consensus you get a better though more general overall picture.

Posted by svens_bath on Mar-29-2005 11:37:

thanks for that mate. appreciated.

Posted by Lebezniatnikov on Mar-31-2005 01:51:

The Gallup poll probably has the best reputation, but like misteropus says, I'd look at a spread of the polls for more accuracy, just because invariably any given poll will bear some slant, whether intended or not.

I would be hesitant to completely trust the CBS or NBC/WSJ polls, simply because the mainstream media looks for sexy numbers over correct ones (that and I don't trust the WSJ).