My recent Zogby *Push* Poll

[NorthCarolina]

Received an email request this morning from Zogby. I was quite surprised to see it as they had stopped forwarding these requests in the last several months run-up to the election. I had always indicated "Progressive/Very Liberal" in prior polls, and assumed this was the likely reason for my input being no longer desired.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I decided to take advantage of this new opportunity to assist in another Zogby poll. I was quite surprised by the *liberty* taken in some of the polling questions, and in some cases totally inaccurate representations of the issues. I would call it a blatant push-poll personally, but I am no expert so I thought it would be fun to post a bit of the poll I was given here and solicit feedback from my fellow DUers. (Note: I removed the radio buttons from the poll and substituted a, b, c, etc. I also numbered the questions beginning with "1" even though these questions were extracted from the middle of the Zogby poll.)


=================================================================================================
(1) The Dow Industrial Average fell about 750 points during President Obama's first 60 days in office. Which of the following do you think is to blame?

a. The President's dire talk of economic collapse

b. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's inability to offer a plan to get the credit markets lending again

c. A global recession and forces beyond the administration's control

d. All of the above

e. Other

f. Not sure

(2) The Employee Free Choice Act is a proposed bill that would effectively eliminate the secret ballot used by workers in deciding whether or not their plant, business, or small business should be unionized. Do you favor or oppose the bill?

a. Favor

b. Oppose

c. Not sure

(3) The Obama administration has quietly moved to reverse the policy of arming pilots of commercial aircraft. The administration is doing this by diverting funding for the training program to hire more supervisory staff who will engage in field inspection of pilots - despite no recorded incidents of pilots improperly using their weapons aboard aircraft. Do you think passengers will be placed at risk by having unarmed pilots, or not?

a. Yes

b. No

c. Not sure

(4) Obama's plans to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, a bill that will end state pro-life laws, could force the nation's 624 Catholic-run hospitals to shut down or to engage in civil disobedience as a matter of conscience rather than provide abortions. Do you agree or disagree with the administration's plan to sign the bill if it is approved?

a. Agree

b. Disagree

c. Not sure

(5) Should members of Congress who received campaign donations over the past two years from the troubled financial giant AIG, return the contributions?

a. Yes

b. No

c. Not sure
====================================================================================================

I may be wrong, but it seems as though 'ol John Zogby is fishin' for a specific outcome to a couple of poll questions there.

[Hugin]

1. I also noticed that awhile back.

I rarely participate anymore.

[NorthCarolina]

2. I guess my level of concern would depend on

how much credence is given to quoting Zogby results in the media, or how much Zogby results influence the discussions in DC. I don't have much of an idea of Zogby influence.

[Hugin]

3. IIRC it says on the Zogby site somewhere that sets of the questions...

are commissioned by outside 'research' organizations.

In other words, other groups pay to poll Zogby's established survey base.
Zogby only provides the footwork and polling mechanism.

Which would make sense... Zogby is a for-profit organization.

However, I agree with your assessment that this has led to a situation that lately is resembling push-polls.

The straw which strained my back was a series of questions concerning Wal-mart. Really shady questions there.

[peace frog]

4. I received a Zogby poll recently

that asked if I was planning to leave the USA permanently. I was like, WTF?! It was a concern because my husband and I have been discussing over the phone his upcoming move to another country for business, then suddenly the Zogby poll, and particularly that question, appeared. Stranger still that I have not been polled by Zogby since well before the 2008 presidential election. Are we too paranoid to wonder if these phone calls were bring monitored and that the Zogby poll seems just a little too conveeeeeenient? We're not tinfoil types but it was quite an eery coinkydink.

[NorthCarolina]

5. I can see where that might have stunned you a bit.

I didn't get that poll apparently, but then again Zogby had not been polling me for some time until the one I received today.