Saturday, August 13, 2011
Poll Encounter
A few days ago the phone rang and when I answered it a pleasant female voice asked if I would answer a few questions in an opinion poll. I asked how long would it take and when she stated it would take only two or three minutes, I agreed to participate.
Instead of the female voice asking questions, the next thing I heard on the telephone was the voice of Dick Morris. He was peddling a book and was talking about what a dreadful President Mr. Obama has been, about his socialistic ideas that are way out of the mainstream, about his complete mishandling of the economy, etc.
After a minute or so of Dick Morris, the female voice was back and said she would now ask me some questions. I said, "go ahead." She asked, "on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being terrible and 10 being very good, how would you rate Obama's handling of the economy?" I thought for a few seconds. Certainly he had tried; he had recommended stimuli to the economy. He'd been hampered by Republican obstruction. I finally decided and replied, "I'd give him a 7."
The voice said, "Thank you. That's all."
I was really irritated at this moment. I said, "You have only one question for me? Is that all you're going to ask after making me spend a minute listening to that ass-hole Dick Morris?"
She said, "Thank you. Good bye." That was the end of our conversation.
I've had people, usually women, telephone me before and ask me to take part in a poll. Usually it's about the effect of advertising on certain products. However, recently I had a poll call from another conservative organization in which the first question was to name the President I considered the best. Then, name the one I considered the worst. I think the "proper" answers for these questions would be "Ronald Reagan" and "Barack Obama. My answers were "Franklin Roosevelt" and "Warren Harding." Polls of this sort are called "push polls." You, the person being polled, are "pushed" toward making the desired response.
Dick Morris didn't push me the slightest bit.
Instead of the female voice asking questions, the next thing I heard on the telephone was the voice of Dick Morris. He was peddling a book and was talking about what a dreadful President Mr. Obama has been, about his socialistic ideas that are way out of the mainstream, about his complete mishandling of the economy, etc.
After a minute or so of Dick Morris, the female voice was back and said she would now ask me some questions. I said, "go ahead." She asked, "on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being terrible and 10 being very good, how would you rate Obama's handling of the economy?" I thought for a few seconds. Certainly he had tried; he had recommended stimuli to the economy. He'd been hampered by Republican obstruction. I finally decided and replied, "I'd give him a 7."
The voice said, "Thank you. That's all."
I was really irritated at this moment. I said, "You have only one question for me? Is that all you're going to ask after making me spend a minute listening to that ass-hole Dick Morris?"
She said, "Thank you. Good bye." That was the end of our conversation.
I've had people, usually women, telephone me before and ask me to take part in a poll. Usually it's about the effect of advertising on certain products. However, recently I had a poll call from another conservative organization in which the first question was to name the President I considered the best. Then, name the one I considered the worst. I think the "proper" answers for these questions would be "Ronald Reagan" and "Barack Obama. My answers were "Franklin Roosevelt" and "Warren Harding." Polls of this sort are called "push polls." You, the person being polled, are "pushed" toward making the desired response.
Dick Morris didn't push me the slightest bit.
Labels: Barack Obama, Dick Morris, Franklin Roosevelt; Warren Harding, push polls
