January 28, 2006 at 07:53:43

The Power, the Gold and Inside Secrets of Polling

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By Rob Kall (about the author) Page 2 of 3 page(s)

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I have no doubt that if there were a way to determine which party uses polls more, we'd find that Gallup and most of the biggest polling operations get far more business from the right wing. Gallup does a huge, billion dollar business with corporations. We know where all the biggest pollsters bread is buttered. When that right winger comes in asking for a poll, they know how to edge the questions the way they want them to come out. When a huge corporate client mentions that a low on funds right wing candidate could use a good poll, Iimagine it's not too difficult to pad a bill on the corporate side of the balance sheet while handing the underfunded candidate a poll for a bargain.

Having completed my first poll, it is clear that the poll is an astonishingly huge blind spot in our vision of the whole election picture.

My experience with the Zogby organization was great. They evidence total integrity and commitment to an ethical and scientific process. But I asked for it. I went into this being an advocate for a candidate, but wanting to do a fair, honest poll. I included all the declared candidates on both side. I contacted all the candidates' campaigns by phone to be sure I reached them and then sent them all the questions I wanted them to answer at the same time, simultaneously, by email.

Just as I was posting my first poll results, I got an email from Chris Bowers, of MyDD, with the subject heading, "What the...." He told me that he'd put together a group to run a poll and that they were about to post their poll. It's ashame we hadn't known about each other's work. We could have coordinated better. They've reported their first numbers here.

There should be much more polling done on the left. I don't think I've seen polls coming out of the left wing advocacy and think tanks. They should be polling routinely. Frankly, the way polls work, it would make sense for right and left wing organizations to share resources. They both need to know what the other side is thinking, in terms of polling right and left wingers.

So far, it's been the media surrogates of billion dollar conglomerates, straight out corporate interests and the campaign-oriented polls of candidates that have provided most of the income for pollsters. I should probably also include the well funded right wing think tanks. I'd bet that they not only commission polls, but that they also advise politicans based on those polls.

We on the left need a lot more polls. If I had it to do over again, and I hopefully will be doing more, I would ask more questions to determine the real strength of the DLC and republican-lite democrats, like Biden, Lieberman and Hillary. I'm sure they've been polling. I'm also sure they are very vulnerable. Our announcement that 85% of Democrats support impeachment should help them find at least a vertebrae or two in their mushy spines.

On the other hand, it will be interesting to see how much media coverage is given to both the OpEdNews.com/Zogby People's Poll and the MyDD poll. The mainstream media could just ignore them. That won't be surprising, will it. It's going to take the support of the progressive media. We'll see how even that works out.

This poll reporting is all new to OpEdNews. I revised the first report article over and over again, then posted the original questions, then the stats for the all the candidate horse race questions. I'll be posting more of the stats over the next few days as all the poll findings are released. It takes time to analzye, sort through and interpret over 1000 findings. As part of the people's poll philosophy, I invited readers, colleagues,experts and pundits to suggest questions. They responded and I used some exactly as written, and, particularly when there were a number of suggestions on the same issue, like paper ballots, integrated the multiple suggesions into one or two.

Now, I find myself overwhelmed by all the info, without a team to generate the reports and articles. So, with the same People's Poll approach, I've invited the 88 writers who have signed on as regulars with OpEdNews to help come up with articles and analysis. And I'll put it out to our readers too. Now this information IS valuable and proprietary, so I'm not going to send it out to anyone who asks for it. I have to know you, or you need to be referred by someone I know. If you're a well known person in the field, a progressive pundit or regular writer I haven't met, I'd love to talk to you and will probably share some of the data with you too.

Polls are incredible sources of the kind of information that is best at accessing power. We need to tap this power, to make thinking about the power and potential of polls part of our activism, part of our defense to the right wing extremist onslaught. We asked the question;

37. Who do you think is more corrupt, if at all, Republicans or Democrats?

1. Republicans 2. Democrats 3. Both equally 4. Neither 5. Not sure

We found that 76% of Republicans think that Republicans are corrupt. 5.5% of Republicans thought that Republicans are MORE corrupt, but 71.4 of Republicans responded both equally. I read that to indicate that Most Republicans take corruption for granted. On the contrary, 14% of Democrats think Democrats are more corrupt and 14.4% thing both are equally corrupt. The Republicans are settling for a lot less.

We can use the power of the polls to change the information atmosphere. Polls won't be enough. I expect the mainstream media to ignore most of them. But union leaders, church leaders, African American leaders, leaders in all the different demographics WILL pay attention. And eventually, we will take back the media. Meanwhile, please contact me if you want to take an active roll in the people's poll. Read the questions an pick which one, or which series interests you.

Links to other articles in the OpEdNews/Zogby People's Poll series

85% of Democrats are more likely to vote for a candidate who supports impeachment. -- OpEdNews.com/Zogby People's Poll

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Rob Kall is executive editor, publisher and site architect of OpEdNews.com, Host of the Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show (WNJC 1360 AM), President of Futurehealth, Inc, (more...)

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