Rasmussen: Most Say Tea Party Has Better Understanding of Issues than Congress

[Emit]

How many expect we will hear these poll results repeated ad nauseum?

I have read that Scott Rasmussen is a GOP operative. Now he seems to be a Tea Party operative!

There's an odd feel to this article, particularly when you follow the links and read Rasmussen's comments about his new book and the 'return of self-governance.' I watched him do an interview with PJTV and he called the Tea party "an incredible phenomenon." (No emphasis added) In his book, he calls for "a surge of political involvement by ordinary citizens." He comes off very pro Tea Party in this interview.

It feels like propaganda to me ~ an effort at grooming a movement ~ doesn't pass the sniff test. Thoughts?

Most Say Tea Party Has Better Understanding of Issues than Congress

Sunday, March 28, 2010

In official Washington, some consider the Tea Party movement a fringe element in society, but voters across the nation feel closer to the Tea Party movement than they do to Congress.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 52% of U.S. voters believe the average member of the Tea Party movement has a better understanding of the issues facing America today than the average member of Congress. Only 30% believe that those in Congress have a better understanding of the key issues facing the nation.

~snip~

As you would expect, there is a wide divide between the Political Class and Mainstream Americans on these questions. Seventy-five percent (75%) of those in the Political Class say that members of Congress are better informed on the issues. Among Mainstream Americans, 68% have the opposite view, and only 16% believe Congress is better informed.

~snip~

“The gap between Americans who want to govern themselves and politicians who want to rule over them may be as big today as the gap between the colonies and England during the 18th century,” Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, says in his new book, In Search of Self-Governance. “If we had to rely on politicians to fix these problems, the outlook for the nation would be bleak indeed. Fortunately, in America, the politicians aren’t nearly as important as they think they are.”

~snip~

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/march_2010/most_say_tea_party_has_better_understanding_of_issues_than_congress


Survey questions:

National Survey of 1,000 Likely Voters
Conducted March 25-26, 2010

By Rasmussen Reports


1* When you think about the major issues facing the country, whose views are closest to your own – those of the average Tea Party member or those of the average member of Congress?


47% Those of the average Tea Party member
26% Those of the average member of Congress
27% Not sure


2* Who has a better understanding of the problems America faces today – the average Tea Party member or the average member of Congress?


52% The average Tea Party member

30% The average member of Congress
18% Not sure



3* Who is more ethical – the average Tea Party member or the average member of Congress?


46% The average Tea Party member

27% The average member of Congress
27% Not sure


NOTE: Margin of Sampling Error, +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/toplines/pt_survey_toplines/march_2010/toplines_tea_party_and_congress_march_25_26_2010

[EFerrari]

1. Where did he poll, Freak Republic?

:rofl:

[Emit]

3. lol! He polled all ten of them 100 times!

:rofl:

[Lorien]

12. Truly. Rasmussen is a joke. nt

[leftstreet]

2. It's probably more a statement about the lameness of Congress

than identification with the Teabaggers.

The Teabaggers are the only 'organized' group the M$M are showing us.

[guitar man]

4. Rasmussen

A Faux Noise poll would be more objective :eyes:

[UTUSN]

5. Methinks his polling sample is BREITBART, Sean, LIMBO, Quitter, & (you know) n/t

[Mnpaul]

6. Actual survey of the teabaggers finds otherwise

The Misinformed Tea Party Movement
http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/18/tea-party-ignorant-taxes-opinions-columnists-bruce-bartlett_3.html

[EFerrari]

9. That's right. The propaganda is getting so ridiculous,

we're supposed to believe Armageddon Spice is presidential and that tea baggers (who don't know Medicare is a government program) are well informed. Next, they'll be claiming Jsy Leno is a comedian.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

7. Just about everybody is desperate to promote the teabaggers

aren't they?

:wtf:

[Lasher]

26. They make great stories for lazy reporters.

Except when they spit on black members of Congress.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

28. What really sucks about all this focus on the teabaggers and other wingnuts

is that they are trying desperately (and/or allowing the Republicans) to make (find) some kind of moral "equivalence" with the left, which doesn't currently exist.
:puke:

[Lasher]

34. You mean like when a bullet literally falls from the sky

and strikes a window that is not one in the office of a particular Republican member of Congress? And when the window/office/building in question is not even in the district of the GOP Congressman in question? And the Congressman says some left wing terrorist shot at him in his office but then the police say nobody shot at him or his window/office or anyone else's because the bullet was falling from the sky, proving the Republican Congressman is a plain liar, but by then the MSM has moved on to stories about some missing blonde woman?

Is that what you mean?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

35. In so many words

yes

[fascisthunter]

8. Politically Biased Front

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

10. Why do you consider these numbers odd?

The lowest rated American institution fares poorly head-to-head with a vague entity.

Duh.

Do you believe that congress is more highly rated or respected than the tea party? It isn't.

People are going to put down congress in any opportunity a pollster gives them. A national poll asking whether the average member of congress is more or less knowledgeable than a brick the brick would do surprisingly well.

Is the contention here that you disagree with the poll result because the answers are wrong? It's a poll, not an encyclopedia. Of course the average tea-bagger couldn't locate America on a globe but this is a poll taken of a bunch of other people who probably cannot find America on a globe.

Rasmussen's biases aside, it's an unexceptional poll result.

[Bjorn Against]

13. The numbers are not surprising at all, but they are propaganda

By placing the teabaggers in competition with one of the least popular institutions in America Rasmussen knew they were going to come out looking far more popular than they actually were. If you were to poll people by asking them "Would you rather have the flu or cancer?" you would find that the large majority of Americans would prefer the flu, but in reality the flu is not nearly as popular as the poll results make it appear. This poll may be technically accurate, but it is pure propaganda designed to make the teabaggers appear much more in touch with ordinary Americans than they actually are.

[protocol rv]

17. My Favorite Poll Questions:

Which political leader do you trust the most:

a) Kim Jong Il
b) Mahmoud Amahdinejad
c) Hugo Chavez
d) Sarah Palin

Pick your solution to the deficit crisis:

a) raise taxes, which will cut your paycheck
b) cut Social Security payments
c) sell Hawaii to the Chinese
d) Vote for Sarah Palin, she'll know what to do

Pick your solution to the Iraq Occupation

a) Become a surrender monkey and run away
b) Draft all 18 year olds and send them to Iraq
c) Pay Osama bin Laden $1 billion to leave Iraq with all his WMDs
d) Vote for Sarah Palin, she'll know what to do

Who is the best looking government chick

a) Janet Reno
b) Hillary Clinton
c) Nancy Pelosi
d) Sarah Palin
c)

[Lasher]

25. That is so good!

And pretty close to the mark. Rasmussen has lost all credibility.

[Emit]

18. I wrote: "There's an odd feel to this article..."

I understand what's being asked and answered here in this poll.

My post was about the juxtaposition of his poll with his obvious bias toward the Tea Party (i.e., his desire to see a 'return of self-governance,' and his personal perception that the Tea Party is "an incredible phenomenon," etc.).


Nate Silver had a related discussion on Rasmussen and bias:

"... But there it is in the Rasmussen survey, where it appears to be designed to build a relationship in the respondent's mind ...

... I also have some questions about Rasmussen's choice of subject matter. In particular, they have a knack for issuing polls at times which tend to dovetail with conservative media narratives..."

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/01/is-rasmussen-reports-biased.html

[Bjorn Against]

11. He is putting an unpopular group that he likes up against a group he knows is even more unpopular...

It is like asking "Who do you trust more, thieves or murderers?", if such a poll were conducted my guess is that thieves would come out looking pretty popular but that doesn't mean that they are. Everyone knows that Congress is extremely unpopular and has been for a long time whether Democrats or Republicans were in the majority. By putting the teabaggers in a head to head competition against a very unpopular group Rasmussen knew the poll would come out looking good for them for the same reason that thieves are likely to look pretty popular when compared to murderers. You would never see him conduct a poll like this for grassroots progressive organizations because it would also show that more people agree with grassroots progressives than with Congress, but that would not fit with his agenda so he focuses only on the teabaggers.

[nevergiveup]

15. You said it well

If the question was "who do you trust more, mass murderers or congress? mass murderers would probably have won.

[Emit]

23. Exactly how I see it, Bjorn Against

and you use a couple of good examples here and in your post above to explain your points.

Anyway, it's apparent to me Rasmussen definitely has an agenda. I do not get cable, so I do not know how many talking heads on M$M refer to Rasmussen polling, but I do know from listening to Hannity and Rush occasionally in the car, he is constantly referring to the latest Rasmussen poll.

[housewolf]

14. 52% is withing the margin of error

and barely constitutes a majority


This is so bogus because most Americans have a very small, self-centered, simplistic view of "the issues the country faces" and are uninformed of the complexities of most issues. It's the complexities and competing interests that Congress needs to deal with.

It's a meaningless poll.

[Edweird]

16. WTF?

[mojowork_n]

19. Americans are trained to respond to TV & Radio & other media...

...through brain receptors that are nowhere near the "higher-capacity" cranial functions.

Remember the first few weeks of the Obama administration?

Someone on D.U. posted a full-color pie chart that tracked the amount of pro- and anti- Dem & Obama media news on the major cable channels. The pie charts looked incredibly skewed.

It came out of the blue, and it seemed very unfair. After 8 years of The Chimp, and mostly kid-gloves or non-existent criticism, it was stunning to see how the media could -- overnight -- do something besides "roll over and play dead."

The issues at the time weren't particularly memorable -- who remembers what they were talking about? -- but it seemed like the number of Republican talking heads opining about 'how concerned they were' over this or that perceived Obama weakness, greatly outnumbered the Dems...

....It's just gotten worse. And the media blitz has spilled over from cable news to just about every form of media imaginable.

Just as in NASCAR or F1, where the real yardstick is dollars-per-cubic inch, I'd be willing to bet that the total amount spent on every different kind of P.R. -- not just the cable news channels -- would show an overwhelming imbalance.

Seriously, someone should study the phenomenon. How political discussion or reporting or whatever we used to take for granted as "news" has been displaced by "news-infotainment."

The TeaBaggers don't have to have any good ideas. It's not part of the program, so long as some isolated (but specifically targeted) cranial neuron nearest the top of the spinal column -- the reptile brain 'fight or flight' center -- gets a good jolt.

Just as health insurance marketers, or beer companies, or makers of laundry detergent don't need to appeal to consumer intelligence, GOP-ers don't rely on the strength of their actual position on issues.

No subtlety, no nuance, no critical thinking -- no thinking at all, really, so long as the media exposure results in an increase in the "brand equity" of the media subject. (Or, in the case of Democrats, and the President, a big decrease in their "brand equity." It's probably much easier to jab the fear and anger response.)

God only knows what combination of psy-ops prodding and stroking is going on -- through social media like Facebook and twitter, AM Hate Radio, viral e-mails with colorful graphics and slick youtube videos embedded -- but the GOP-ers have bags and bags of money to spend, so they'll keep refining and re-shaping the messages to best suit their needs.

And the Supreme Court just made it all perfectly legal.

Who's going to bother adding up the numbers, or trying to get a grip on what's going on?

[jmowreader]

20. What a wonderful, wonderful poll!

Please, pray tell, what in FUCK is an "average member of Congress"? There are 435 people serving in the House of Representatives and 100 more in the Senate. They range from very thoughtful, intelligent people like Barney Frank to total loons like John Boehner. If we get to pick the one "average member of Congress," I'd say the Average Repuke is Jim Sensenbrenner, and Keith Ellison can be the Average Democrat. (In picking Sensenbrenner I used two criteria: he's not a total raving lunatic like Darrell Issa and he isn't completely stupid like Michele Bachmann, who is also a total raving lunatic but I just couldn't bring myself to list her as both insane and stupid.)

[old mark]

21. Right - if the "issues" are : 1. Obama was born in Kenya -

2. Jesus wants us to kill Democrats.
3. Jesus wants us to kill Mexicans.
4. America is being taken over by European Socialists
led by Obama's "handlers".
5. Sarah Palin is mentioned in the Old Testament- by name.
6. NO ON needs ta spel gud - we al no whet ya meen.
7. Various other articles in the wacko concordia of bullshit.

Amen, brother.

mark

[upi402]

22. "Most" Americans are uninformed or misinformed. n/t

[HughMoran]

24. A few nut jobs are sucking up a lot of air

This country is amazingly moronic.

[deacon]

27. Wow, what a ridiculous poll. No way that poll holds any truth of reality. n/t

[HughBeaumont]

29. Calling Democrats "Communists" is hardly what I'd call "understanding the issues".

Protesting AFTER George W Bewsh doubled the National Debt on illegal invasions and tax cuts for the wealthy = they don't know shit about shit. This is about a non-caucasian Democrat in THEIR Oval Office.

[MajorChode]

30. That would be a pretty good trick considering many/most teabaggers are subliterate

With the possible exception of Bachmann, most members of congress can at least spell most of the words they use.

[B Calm]

31. The average Tea Bagger can't even tell you how many branches of government,

let alone name them!

[End Of The Road]

32. I think my dog understands the issues better than Congress

and he's no Teabagger. He has better reasoning skills than most of them.

[deutsey]

33. If true, we are screwn.

:evilgrin: