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
Friday, August 13, 2010
My Interview with Dick Morris
The other day I received a phone call from a young man who wanted to thank me for my support in the past and also wanted to play for me a short talk by Dick Morris. I agreed. The recorded message from Dick Morris lasted about two minutes or so. In the message Mr. Morris expressed his regrets that President Obama is taking the country in the wrong direction, introducing socialism, etc. (It seems to me that Dick Morris was once one of Bill Clinton's political advisors.)
Then another voice came on the phone. This time it was a woman who wanted to get my opinions on various subjects for a poll. Her first question was, did I hear and understand all of Mr. Morris's recorded talk? I answered YES.
Her second question was, did I think that all the wasteful spending on stimulating the economy would help the United States? I answered again, YES.
That was the end of the opinion survey. She said "good bye" and hung up.
Then another voice came on the phone. This time it was a woman who wanted to get my opinions on various subjects for a poll. Her first question was, did I hear and understand all of Mr. Morris's recorded talk? I answered YES.
Her second question was, did I think that all the wasteful spending on stimulating the economy would help the United States? I answered again, YES.
That was the end of the opinion survey. She said "good bye" and hung up.
Labels: conservative push poll, Dick Morris
