77% of Voters For a Public Option: How NBC/Ras Got It Wrong

[Joanne98]

SurveyUSA recently confirmed that, just as had been indicated throughout the year by multiple pollsters, about three quarters of voters support a public option - a commanding majority.

But what about all those other polls the last few weeks that came out with much more negative data, and drove the narrative both in the traditional media and here in the blogosphere that the town hall demonstrations had turned the tide against the public option?

Well, it turns out General Electric subsidiary NBC, Newscorp subsidiary The Wall Street Journal, and Republican pollster Scott Rasmussen don't have an interest in correctly representing the amount of support for the public option; I know - shocking.

But how did they pull it off?

ShadowSD's diary :: :: It's all about the wording. The most recent NBC/WSJ poll included the words "government administered" and Rasmussen's polls include the word "Congressional"; those pollsters could argue, and correctly so, that these terms are entirely accurate and appropriate. However, the trick is that they add those terms to the question while at the same time omitting the word CHOICE. The SurveyUSA poll uses both the words choice and government, and finds 77% support for a public option, the highest number yet; in fact, people overwhelmingly want the choice of a government plan in every poll that words the question as such, but when they're asked about a government plan without any mentioning of choice, the numbers are closer.



Guess what - you're not polling for a public option, GE and Scotty, you're polling for single payer. It's nice to know that half of the country is now supportive of single payer, proving neanderthal astroturf summer circuses cheered by the party of no good for anybody have continued to decimate the anti-government viewpoint on health care, but you should at least represent the question to your readers properly when you are reporting your results.




The broader problem is that it's been so easy to get sucked into the narratives that have emerged in the last few weeks, with analysts talking about 2010 losses for Democrats, and every pundit reacting as if this is a result of public option support slipping due to conservative pushback. Don't buy that illusion - if Democrats have problems in 2010 it's going to be due to a failure of mobilizing their voters, which simply won't occur if a public option passes. The fact is that public option supporters had at best ONE rough week of town halls, and then pushed back hard in the two weeks since by showing up in larger numbers than the wingnuts, by pressuring Congress and the White House, and by rewarding good behavior among Representatives and Senators - not to mention the President's own town halls defending the public option to critics and undecideds; the end result of the opposition winning one week and us winning two weeks is that the electorate is as supportive or even a bit more supportive of the public option that it had been previously, according to all the data.

There is simply not some widespread national resentment to or perception of the public option being pushed on people, as the insurance company astroturfers are trying their hardest to sell to a very gullible and suggestible media, since 77% of the electorate supports a public option, and only half the country opposes single payer at this point (as NBC and Ras have so graciously determined for us).

Continued>>.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/8/24/771597/-77-of-Voters-For-a-Public-Option:-How-NBC-Ras-Got-It-Wrong

[John Q. Citizen]

1. I think the percentage of the country for single payer is even higher if the poll would

correctly tell respondents what their costs would be and how little hassle it is.

[Joanne98]

2. Yeah. If we only had a media that told the truth about anything.

[bemildred]

3. Polls lie, that is what they get paid to do. nt