I have expressed my concerns with Public Policy Polling before. PPP is a traditionally Democratic firm which now is the official pollster for DailKos, and has a tendency to put a heavy spin on its poll results.
Today PPP officially beclowned itself, releasing a poll which, among other things, pitted Charlie Sheen against, respectively, Barack Obama and Sarah Palin.
Do serious pollsters engage in such publicity stunts?
But it gets even worse, because PPP cherry picked the data to spin the poll against Sarah Palin, with this headline, Palin trails Sheen with independents.
And indeed, according to the cross-tabs, Sheen does better with independents versus Palin (41%) as opposed to Obama (22%).
Why focus only on that measure? Isn’t the headline that 24% of the population definitely would choose Charlie Sheen over the sitting President of the United States? Or that another 19% are not sure? How about this headline:
“43% of Americans would consider voting for Charlie Sheen over Barack Obama!”
Or how about this:
“The most media-adored President in history could lose 43% of the vote to Charlie Sheen!”
PPP set out to embarrass Sarah Palin, but ended up embarrassing itself.
If PPP wants to be taken seriously, it should act in a serious manner, and not in the manner we would expect from the official pollster for DailyKos.
——————————————–
Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube
Visit the Legal Insurrection Shop on CafePress!
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Look, it's a Democratic Party firm and they are trying to drive Palin from the race. I know a propaganda campaign when I see one.
Fortunately, so does Palin.
This isn't surprising – Sheen is considerably more honest than Barack.
Taken seriously?
As you said, PPP is the official pollster for DailyKos.
'Nuff said.
Well, Barack Obama was elected so America would have its "first black president". So why not Carlos Estevez as America's "first Hispanic president"?
Is it that big a leap from "Hope and Change" to "Duh! Winning!"?
If someone put a poll in front of me that listed Barak Obama, Sarah Palin and Charlie Sheen, you can bet I'd check off Charlie Sheen. For this very reason – to see the pollsters beclown themselves and the whole concept of polling.
I was just polled by Public Policy Polling today. I live in Wake County, NC, which is being attacked by the left and the NAACP for trying to end race based bussing for schools. Anyway, I knew the questions were leading and biased, so I wrote them down. Here are some of the questions I was asked today: "Do you have more than 3 friends of a different race?" "Do you have a favorable impression of Martin Luther King?" "Can you depend on the government to do the right thing."
The polling company wasn't identified at the beginning of the call, I'm so glad I picked up a pencil and wrote down these leading questions. And I'm really glad I stayed through the end to find out it was Public Policy Polling. They beclowned themselves in more than one poll today!
Uh-oh…looks like Obama may need to get himself some of that tiger blood and Adonis DNA.
I'd prefer Charlie Sheen over Obama, at least he isn't boring! But then again, I'd prefer pretty much anybody to Obama.