Polling Around

Here in Kenya the government always complains whenever opinion polls are published that seem to eternally show it as unpopular. You figure that’s just politics. Yet, perhaps they have a grievance. The Bush administration surely does. Associated Press, one of the world’s major  “impartial” news agencies, is forever publishing polls in conjunction with Ipsos, that show the “majority” of Americans are opposed to almost everything the Republicans  have as an agenda.

That smells like a rat, given that US politics  has been largely centre-right for two decades now. And you would be right to hold your nose.  The latest AP/Ipsos poll shows “most” Americans think President Bush should have a  court order to wiretap suspected terrorists who are US citizens by 56% to 42%.

The trouble, as you can check from the Ipsos poll data at their website , is they managed to ask  42% Democrats and only 30% Republicans, in their poll sample. No wonder they got the answer they did.

Ipsos self-description is “a non-partisan, objective, survey-based research company made up of campaign and political polling veterans.” Really? It’s an old media sales trick of the MSM to commission “polls” whose pre-determined and  cooked outcome will be used to sell media to Joe Public, via “shock” results.