How Democrats Win Elections
Former KFI talk show host John Ziegler has repeated Howard Stern’s experiment under more scientific conditions, first by having his people select the 12 Obama supporters who appeared the most likely to be well-informed rather than the cherry-picking the least informed (as I presume Stern did to maximize entertainment value, although I don’t know), and then sponsoring a Zogby poll to back it up. Yes, I know Zogby polls have been famous for being comically wrong, but I don’t think any national pollster, Zogby included, has been as colossally wrong as this poll would have to be for Ziegler’s basic conclusions not to stick.
As indicated by the subject line, I think the implications of Ziegler’s documentary go far beyond this particular election. At a minimum they go beyond Obama himself. For example, knowing that most Obama supporters think Republicans currently control Congress may go a long way toward explaining why voters who are mad as hell at the Democrat Congress (whose poll ratings are much worse than Bush’s), saw fit to punish that hated Democrat Congress by electing even more Democrats.
My question to readers: if every ballot had a few questions like Ziegler’s, and the ballot was voided if fewer than half of these questions had been answered correctly, would we ever see another Democrat in the White House?
November 19th, 2008 at 9:51 am
I expect you need to know what the results would be for Republicans, too, before you could make any reasonable assessments. It’s quite possible, if not as likely, that the average Republican believes some things that are false.
The results are rather frightening, “push poll” or not.
November 19th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Universal suffrage was a bad idea.
Property owners only. If you don’t have a stake, screw your opinions.
At the very least, welfare recipients ( both the poor, and salarymen who get fed subsidies ) should not get a vote, as they are wards of the state.
Odds of this happening? Probably less than zero.
November 20th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
Not that you’re terribly interested, but Nate Silver cries foul. And, as a follow up, Ziegler demonstrates that he’s a complete tool.
tgirsch´s last blog post..The Bush Legacy
November 21st, 2008 at 3:15 pm
The WSJ has a better explanation.
tgirsch´s last blog post..The Bush Legacy
November 21st, 2008 at 8:35 pm
Make up your mind. The first link alleges it was a push poll. The second says it wasn’t, all it proves is that Democrats are dumbasses whose knowledge of history goes back about three months. Which theory is it?
November 24th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
There’s disagreement as to whether it qualifies as a “push poll” but general agreement that it was crap.
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