Apparently, my blog is starting to get somewhat more traffic, according to Google Analytics, probably due to its use in my class (PSCI 2101). Therefore, it's probably time to post something new that is (maybe) relevant to the policy analysis class.
I would like to point you all to the following link, which connects you up to public opinion polling feeds from pollster.com. This is a great source of polling information on just about everything in US politics. You can check out the web page, or you can sign on to the rss feeds and get all the polling data (from just about everyone reputable in the country) delivered to your rss aggregator.
One interesting thing of note here is just how wacky public opinion polling results have been over the last couple of months in the area of health care reform. Among other interesting things, public opinion in favor of changing the current system is pretty strong, but public opinion against many of the alternatives is also very high. Maybe this is the result of all the mis-information going around. Or maybe not.
Mostly, the point is that recent public opinion polls don't seem (to me or to many analysts) to be wholly consistent. Or are they?
3 comments:
I think these poll results are consistent in the sense that people clearly want a reform in health care, but they don't agree with any of the options being presented. In this case, the government could take several paths. One would be to outline and present every detail of Obama's public option plan to make sure people actually understand what it entails before deciding against it. Misunderstanding/confusion likely plays a huge role in why people disagree with Obama's plan. The other option would be to design an alternative plan that appeals to the majority of the US population. Overall, people are consistently unhappy with the current start of health care, but are also consistently unhappy with the various health care options.
I found pollster.com to be a great site with some fun information on what people think about current issues. But also i found it to be kinda useless. Some of these polls had information coming from unknown sources. Also, who is polling? Usually when someone wants to display their feelings toward an argument, they are either very strongly for it or very strongly against it. Usually the middle ground doesn't show opinion in these types of polls.
Double-check the site: I believe the sources of these polls are always listed. Usually, they're major polling services (Rasmussen, Quinnipiac, Zogby, and Gallup are a couple of the major ones).
I'm no public opinion expert, but I think these issues of people holding strong feelings are pretty effectively dealt with by these guys. But that may be a topic for another post.
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