Nasty, bogus poll by right wing Newsmax
I just went on the Verizon website to pay my bill and got a popup request to vote in a Newsmax poll on whom I'd vote for for President. Questions 1 & 3 were straightforward, but I found questions 2, 4 & 5 to be slanted & questionable, and/or offer incomplete choices.
I have a master's degree in applied social research, most of which involves the design of questionnaires and surveys. I know full well how the answer categories can be structured, sometimes with a seemingly innocuous adjective, allowing the sponsors of surveys to twist and combine the answers to suit their desired outcomes. Perhaps Newsmax allows blitheringly incompetent people to write these survey questions and answer categories and they are too stupid to do it properly, but I greatly doubt it. After viewing these questions, I googled Newsmax and found lots of nasty rightwing writings. As one critic said, "To be sure, the truth according to Newsmax is very different from the truth according to, say, The New York Times. On a given day, Newsmax will feature headlines like "Gore's Swan Song: Hail to the Cheat!" and "Democrats Plot Against Bush."
So here are the questions.
1) If the election were held today, who would you vote for?
Barack Obama - Joe Biden
Mitt Romney - Paul Ryan
Other
2) Are you more likely to vote for Mitt Romney because Paul Ryan is his VP?
More Likely
Less Likely
Doesn't change my opinion of Romney
3) Which party should run congress?
Republican
Democratic
4) To close the federal deficit, Congress and the President should
Raise taxes
Cut spending
Cut taxes and cut spending
Raise taxes and increase spending
5) Do you favor significant cuts to Medicare?
Yes, cut Medicare significantly
No, don't cut Medicare significantly
Read more on Newsmax.com: Romney vs Obama
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#2 - Why do they only ask about Ryan and not Biden?
#4 - No choices are offered to "cut taxes and raise spending" or "raise taxes and decrease spending" - both of which combinations, Romney/GOP would oppose, depending upon which taxes and which spending. I favor raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans and American corporations and decreasing spending on foreign wars. I also favor cutting taxes for lower income Americans and increasing spending on education, health care and repairing infrastructure. So none of the possible answers reflected my opinions.
One could interpret "raise spending" to refer to further stimulus for job creation, i.e., public works programs, etc., which the GOP opposes. Or one could interpret it to raise taxes to finance new and extended foreign wars, i.e., corporate welfare for the military industrial complex, which the GOP supports. The concepts of "raising taxes" or "cutting spending" are insultingly simplistic. Are taxes to be raised on the wealthiest individuals and on American corporations (by cutting loopholes), or on the middle/working class and the poor and elderly by eliminating tax deductions for mortgage interest, real estate taxes and health care, and indirectly by cutting social security payments and medicare/medicaid coverage.
#5 - Is the nastiest, trickiest question of all because it implies that all people who answer the question agree to SOME cuts to Medicare - and provides no definition of "significantly". So if 10% of respondents check the "cut Medicare significantly" answer and 90% check don't cut Medicare significantly", Newsmax could state "100% of all respondents favored cutting Medicare."
Needless to say, I did not participate in this poll.
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