Tuesday, November 3, 2009
On Push Polls
Posted by Flyer Staff on Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 10:22 PM
- Mike McWherter
The questions all took some such form as “Would you tend to look favorably on Mike McWherter, knowing he is…” The son of a former governor. Someone who knows business and how the banking system works. A pioneer in the field of green technology. Etc., etc., etc.
In short, the good doctor had been on the receiving end of a “push poll,” one designed more to influence answers than to solicit them. And candidate McWherter will not be the first nor the last to employ such polls in the 2010 election cycle.
McWherter may indeed be all of the fine things indicated by his pollster’s questions. But have your salt shaker ready to pour out a few grains when his or anybody else’s home-grown poll results are published.
Comments (10)
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First off, you can't believe poll results, unless they favor your candidate. Campaigning 101
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I thought I had a post on push polling.
http://dailydocket.blogspot.com/2006/08/ha…
There's a distinction between push-polling and message testing. It was almost certainly an internal poll being run, but the fact that they only tested positives on McWherter rather than discussing negatives on the others makes it seem less like a push poll. Also, if they did the whole demographic buffet of questions, it's likely that it was a true scientific poll. Testing a candidate's positives is not push-polling.
Message testing. I like that term. Still sounds bogus, no matter how much lipstick you smear on it.
I'm thinking rutledd1 is right, the push polling I'm familiar with usually includes questions more along the lines of the 'Would you be more or less likely to approve of/vote for Candidate X if he said he had stopped beating his wife?' sort of thing.
Yeah, I'm not so sure I buy into this as a push poll. A push poll is generally more about spreading a negative message. "Does John McCain having a biracial child out of wedlock influence whether or not you will support him?" in the 2000 South Carolina GOP primary is one of the better examples.
I'm not even sure there is a proper term for this kind of call. "Message testing" is a good option. "Blowing sunshine up ther voter's @$$es" is another.
Wikipedia explains what a "push poll" is:
A push poll is a political campaign technique in which an individual or organization attempts to influence or alter the view of respondents under the guise of conducting a poll. (see Wintermute's link above). It looks and smells like a push poll to me.
Push polls use leading questions, with the intention of reporting skewed results... that doesn't mean that *every* poll which asks leading questions is a push poll.
As already pointed out, there may be other goals in mind, such as looking for anomalies when a specific item is brought up, so as to identify areas to be avoided or emphasized in future advertising.
'Would you be less likely to approve of President Lincoln if you knew he was going to force your daughters to marry freed slaves?', is a push poll question.
'Would you be more likely to approve of President Lincon if he were clean shaven?', is a survey item.
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