Posted by
Always To The Right on Sunday, June 21, 2009 1:17:05 PM
Uh oh: 72% support a government-backed health-care plan
Bruce Kesler points out that — in traditional NYT/CBS fashion — the sample is badly skewed:
According to the actual poll data, of the 73% of
respondents who said they voted in 2008 only 34% voted for McCain and
66% for Obama. The actual vote was 48% McCain.
This is a good example of why reading a poll is as much art as
science, because the first problem is the percentage who say they voted
in the 2008 election. In reality, no more than 62%
of eligible voters cast ballots last year. Accordingly, the poll has
sampled a lot of adults who were ineligible to vote… or, as often
happens, respondents lied about voting. In such cases, the lie tends to
skew in favor of the winner.