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Originally posted by Ustwo -
We have already discussed the Pipa report and I pointed out its obvious bias as well as Kerry supporters follies in it, but being such a smart and educated guy you most likely already know that.
What does it say about you to take someone’s word on it without relying looking at the raw data or thinking about what kind of questions were asked? Are you misinformed or was it a flaw in your education?
In short when you are going to make an infuriating statement, do yourself a favor and hold back because someone like me will come along and point out that perhaps it is you who fit the very description of "misinformed" you are tying to place on the Republican voters.
Thanks and I hope you learned something useful.
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Ustwo - I'd like to point out that I never said that Kerry supporters weren't misinformed on any issues. Before accusing me of doing so, please note what I actually wrote.
As to PIPA's biases...well, I'll be honest, I can't find what they are. I read through the earlier threads on the PIPA report and the closest thing to a discussion of PIPA's biases was this post, by djtestudo, which I am reprinting in its entirety:
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I went to Maryland, and took political science and history classes there. Therefore, seeing:
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The University of Maryland's Center on Policy Attitudes and the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland
automatically makes me ignore the article as coming from a source that makes John Kerry look like Pat Buchanan on the political spectrum.
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Now, I may indeed be missing the detailed scholarly work referenced on this board that provides sound reasons why the PIPA work is biased. And I apologize if I simply missed that, and would appreciate it if someone could point it out to me. However, lacking that, I would reply: the only evidence of PIPA's biases is a single post, wholly unsupported by facts, on this board. I might ask you, Ustwo: What does it say about you to take someone’s word on it without relying looking at the raw data or thinking about what kind of questions were asked? Are you misinformed or was it a flaw in your education?
Furthermore, I have indeed looked into the polling methods used by PIPA. It turns out that PIPA actually used the firm Knowledge Networks to conduct random nationwide polls with an error margin of 3.5% in this case.
In fact, Ustwo, I decided to engage in further research and will now quote on PIPA polling methods from the end of a very similar PIPA report in the book American Hegemony, published by The Academy of Political Science in 2004:
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"The poll was fielded by Knowledge Networks - a polling, social science, and market research firm in Menlo Park, California - with a randomly selected sample of its large-scale nationwide research panel. This panel is itself randomly selected from the national population of households having telephones and subsequently provided internet access for the completion of surveys (and, thus, is not limited to those who already have internet access). The distribution of the sample in the web-enabled panel closely tracks the distribution of United States Census counts for the U.S. population on such variables as age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, geographical region, employment status, income, and education. The panel is recruited using stratified random digit-dial (RDD) telephone sampling (page 80)."
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I will admit to not being an expert on polling biases. But I do believe that this is a fair sampling of the U.S. populace.
Until someone proves that PIPA, a respected program attached to a well-regarded institution of of higher learning, is biased or is somehow entirely misrepresenting the situation with regards to the public perceptions of Bush supporters, I will continue to believe their report.
Thanks and I hope you learned something useful.