Quote:
what reasons would we have for thinking that their opinions on more specific war policy issues would be non-representative?
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By the nature and wording of the questions (one quick example ofa notoriously bad polling technique - the use of either/or questions (with only extreme choices) on a complex issue - like #5 "which is more harmful to America's reputation" - pull our troops out immediately or leave the troops in Iraq as long as it takes -- rather than offering a mulitple choice with other options that may very well represent the real majority opinion (like announcing a date to begin a slow draw down of troops over time while simlutaneously engaging in more aggressive political and diplomatic solutions).
Another example of question bias: When a poll has a question like #7 "The Dems have gone too far, too fast, to press the President to withdraw the troops"......shouldnt there also be a #7a (for balance) "The Repubs have not gone far enough to provide oversight and hold the President accountable to strict measures of progress"?
From my recollections of a political polling class twenty years ago, the designer of this survey would have failed miserable on objectivity