Name:   MartiniMan - Subject:   Hey Ms Hound Date:   10/11/2019 8:28:35 AM

Why bring me into this conversation?  As for my view of polls, I think far too many of them are done to influence public opinion, not gauge it.  The way the questions are structured is one essential aspect as is the weighting of the poll between Democrats, Republicans and Independents and whether it is of registered voters or likely voters.  But what is also interesting is to look at the answers to other questions.  The recent FoxNews poll about Trump impeachment is a good example.  It overweighted Democrats over Republicans by 8%.  What they don't show, because it undermines the poll clickbait headline, is the proportion of Democrats calling for impeachment versus Republicans.  I'm betting that's because it is wildly different.  Include as many Republicans as Democrats and I am betting the result falls well below 50%.

And they never talk about the internals.  For example, in this poll 57% of the respondents didn't think the call with the president of Ukraine was an impeachable offense.  That is the reason Democrats are going for impeachment and even the respondents to this poll don't think it is justified based on this call, which initself is amazing given the overweighting of Democrats.  So how do you explain the discrepency?  How do you explain the overwhelming desire of Democrats for impeachment despite them not supporting the alleged reason?  TDS, plan and simple. Another aspect of all this that gets very little mention is slant of the media coverage on this issue and pretty much anything Trump.  I imagine the media wrings their hands that the numbers aren't higher given the overwhelmingly negative coverage.  Even when details come out in Trump's favor it gets spun.  We see more details about the political bias of the leaker and the headline is Republicans Pounce on Whistleblower Who Now Fears Violent Retaliation.  The reality is that if the public knew who this person was and their overt bias, saw their social media and text messages, saw the details of the coordination with Pencil Neck, saw the trasncript of the Volker testimony and so on, even many Democrats would see this for what it is and no longer support impeachment for this call.

Regardless, my only issue with polls is how they are used and misused and underexplained and spun and twisted.  They become a talking point by either side of an issue meant to influence public opinion, not determine what it actually is.