538: Obama’s Lead Looks Stronger in Polls That Include Cellphones

Those are for the whippersnappers.

you can get a free cell phone. one that if you drop it. it's effectively in 900 pieces.

Things just aren't looking good for Mitt.

How many people even *have* land lines anymore?

I only first got a cell in 2010..I was late to the party. I didn't need one..but, now that's all I have. I knew I would love it.

One less expense!

But kept a landline until a few years ago. Once I got an all-inclusive cell phone plan, the landline just became a vehicle for telemarketers. One less expense and a lot fewer headaches!

I have never gotten used to Digital. It cut's out so much, including voices, so often. Hate digital cell phones. I've been forced into it, but very grudgingly.

When you have severe weather with 8-10 day power outages, it's best to have several distinct options. Some times, one works when the other doesn't.

I need to have a backup plan in case the cellphone is not charged or won't get a signal or crashes.

The biggest reason is that I currently have four land line phones distributed throughout my house (bedroom upstairs, kitchen, office, living room) so that I don't have to run like a madwoman to get to the phone when it rings. If I only had my cell, I would have to keep it on me even in my house or always make sure to carry it upstairs with me and then back downstairs etc. Sorry - way too big of a pain. Plus, I am home most of the time except for when I am at work, so I am much more reachable on my home line than my cell.

My husband and I use TracPhones (which we love). The two of us, combined, spend only about $15 per month on our cell phones. Works for us.

Plus, there is the reliability of coverage and service issues with cells and the fact that you always have to be keeping tabs on your battery level and charging the phone.

I doubt I will ever give up my land line.

...for the exact same reasons emmadoggy has one. I really hate having to carry the darned thing around with me, and can't get used to just letting it go to voice mail if I'm not in the vicinity. I have one and probably spend way too much for it (Verizon) as we only use about an hour a month unless my elderly mother is in the hospital. I haven't gotten a Smart Phone yet either.

I've had a cell since about 1995 - my first one was given to me by my husband when I worked evenings and I was (and still am) driving home from work after 11 p.m. I text with it - mostly to my daughter, who lives to text but I really never text anyone else that often. I'm addicted enough to the internet without having it with me constantly.

We have been in a couple of situations where it paid to have both types of phones - power outage and bad weather potential being the biggest. I will admit we've been inundated with robo-calls on the land line for about the last month or so. We haven't been answering the phone unless we recognize the number.

Another reason for the land line is that we have a security system. When we got it three years ago you had to have a land line for it. I guess the upgrades to systems allow you to have them now without a land line but I haven't looked into it.

when M$M put pressure on 538 to make the election look more like a horse race? Why are Democratic candidate polls going up in states across the country, if Obama's support is beginning to wane? I smell a rat at the NYTs.

it's about the Narrative..not actual facts.

News Flash!

Arizona votes for statehood!

Huzzah!

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That'd be news we could use next time some "concerned" person posts bad poll numbers.

The below comment on the article is really interesting - ellentherese is from Ohio, a swing state. (FWIW, I'm from Minnesota, an apparently hopeless blue state, and haven't had a survey call on either my land line (which I keep for clarity of conversations) or my cell phone.) Anyway, her's the Ohioan's comment:

Here in Central Ohio, my household receives daily (sometimes hourly) "survey requests" on the landline. None of the three cell phones in the household have been polled even once this cycle. Re the landline calls: professional pollsters like Quinnipiac identify the organization doing the polling, then proceed to ask the live or automated questions. Other amateurish pollsters ask how we plan to vote for president, senator and congressman "because I need to update my database." We have repeated received an automated poll for the neighboring congressional district, not the district to which we belong.

Poll results for Ohio may now be skewed by those who are still willing to answer the same questions day after day after day. I suspect those still responding are passionate about one candidate or the other. The rest of us (even political junkies like myself) have opted out of the landline polls.

Here's a link to the statistics on landline vs cells. Some of it is a bit dated info from 2009 & 2010, but quite interesting never-the-less.

http://www.acainternational.org/products-wireless-and-landline-phones-6488.aspx

I've copied a few of the stats below.

•Wireless subscriptions have risen from 33.8 million in 1995 to 322.9 million in June 2011. (Source: CTIA – The Wireless Association, Wireless Quick Facts, 2011.)

•Wireless penetration for the U.S. population has increased from 13% in 1995 to 120.4% in 2011. (Source: CTIA – The Wireless Association,

•Nearly one of every six American households (15.9%) received all or almost all calls on wireless telephones despite having a landline telephone in the home. Approximately 40 million adults (17.7%) lived in wireless-mostly households. (Source: Wireless Substitution: Early Release of Estimates From the National Health Interview Survey, January-June 2010, Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics, December 2010.)

•Landline only homes dropped from 34.4% in the first half of 2005 to 12.9% in the first half of 2010. (Source: Wireless Substitution: Early Release of Estimates From the National Health Interview Survey, January-June 2010, Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics, December 2010.)

In most cases cell only households or individuals tend to be younger demos. Younger demos tend to be more left leaning. In addition, larger metro areas like NYC, Chicago, LA, Boston, Minneapolis , Miami, etc. Tend to have more cell only households.

Just Duh.

Finally, a forum I can finally post in and feel right at home then! I second this

Wasnt it yesterday when many on DU wanted to kill Nate?
A lot of you need to C.T.F.D. 10-2.
I am not on either side and from what i see Nate is just calling it the way it is. Some days he will says stuff u dont like, some days, like today he will say stuff u like.

I actually keep forgetting people use land lines. Rasmussen uses land lines, I assume?

Anyway, I'm sure they know what their doing. I'd look as the most pessimistic ones just to be safe.

I am mostly concerned about turnout at this point. People with landlines perhaps have more time to vote. Angry conservatives are to be taken as a serious threat. These are the same folks who literally assassinate liberal thinkers, so we can rely on the fact that they will turn out in November en masse.

Oy gevalt.

Health

Obamacare Will Help Seniors Save $5,000 Over The Next Decade

By Tara Culp-Ressler posted from ThinkProgress Health on Sep 21, 2012 at 9:48 am


According to a new report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the health care reform law will help the average American under a traditional Medicare plan save $5,000 from 2010 to 2022.

Medicare beneficiaries who have high prescription costs will save even more — over $18,000 in the same time period — since Obamacare will help make Medicare prescription drug coverage more affordable for seniors by working to close the “donut hole” coverage gap. Already, in the short time period since the law was enacted, 5.5 million seniors and Americans with disabilities have saved over $4 billion on their prescription drugs.

Mitt Romney has pledged to repeal the Affordable Care Act “on day one,” undermining the cost controls in the law and increasing the costs for seniors’ preventative, hospital, and physician services. His own proposal to transform the Medicare program from a guaranteed benefit to a guaranteed contribution — providing seniors a pre-determined “premium support” credit that will not keep up with health care costs — would increase premiums by nearly $60,000 for seniors reaching the age of 65 in 2023, a recent study found.