I periodically participate in a Zogby poll on-line. I think they are of questionable value, but figure that if I don't take the 10 minutes to represent the middle of the political spectrum, the voice of the extremes gets amplified by my silence.
While I'm not a pollster, I have enough psych, stat, and testing background to recognize good and bad questions when I see them. Zogby tends to be mediocre.
Today's poll had two political questions that seemed more intended to drive my opinion than solicit it.
One question asked the two most important issues that would influence my vote in the general election. The war was not on the list. The only thing remotely related to Iraq and Afghanistan on the list was "Terrorism". This got me a bit fired up.
The next question really pissed me off. Verbatim it said:
"Democratic candidate Barack Obama has proposed extending the Bush administration's tax cuts on the middle class while eliminating the tax cuts that benefit Americans earning more than $250,000 a year. Is your overall opinion of this proposal very favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat unfavorable, or very unfavorable, or are you not familiar enough to form an opinion?"
Huh? Am I living on a different planet? Keep me honest friends... what significant tax relief has the middle class received during the past 8 years? It seemed to me that Obama had proposed more tax relief for the middle class, so I checked the facts on the Obama web site and confirmed this was the case.
There was a button on the bottom of the screen to submit comments about the survey... I mushed it and sent the following e-mail.
Dear sir/madam
I received a poll from you today that has an incorrect and misleading question. Your poll states:
"Democratic candidate Barack Obama has proposed extending the Bush administration's tax cuts on the middle class while eliminating the tax cuts that benefit Americans earning more than $250,000 a year. Is your overall opinion of this proposal very favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat unfavorable, or very unfavorable, or are you not familiar enough to form an opinion?"
This is incorrect and misleading. President Bush's tax cuts primarily benefitted people making over $250K. Candidate Obama is proposing additional tax cuts for the middle class.
From http://www.barackobama.com/...
Obama will cut income taxes by $1,000 for working families to offset the payroll tax they pay.
* Provide a Tax Cut for Working Families: Obama will restore fairness to the tax code and provide 150 million workers the tax relief they need. Obama will create a new "Making Work Pay" tax credit of up to $500 per person, or $1,000 per working family. The "Making Work Pay" tax credit will completely eliminate income taxes for 10 million Americans.
* Eliminate Income Taxes for Seniors Making Less than $50,000: Barack Obama will eliminate all income taxation of seniors making less than $50,000 per year. This proposal will eliminate income taxes for 7 million seniors and provide these seniors with an average savings of $1,400 each year. Under the Obama plan, 27 million American seniors will also not need to file an income tax return.
* Simplify Tax Filings for Middle Class Americans: Obama will dramatically simplify tax filings so that millions of Americans will be able to do their taxes in less than five minutes. Obama will ensure that the IRS uses the information it already gets from banks and employers to give taxpayers the option of pre-filled tax forms to verify, sign and return. Experts estimate that the Obama proposal will save Americans up to 200 million total hours of work and aggravation and up to $2 billion in tax preparer fees.
Is your intention to solicit public opinion, or to shape it? The way your question is worded, makes candidate Obama's proposal seem unfair (and gives way to much credit to President Bush). For what it's worth, I make more than $250K per year and am reasonably familiar with this issue. I would appreciate clarification of your question or your intent. I have been pleased to participate in prior polls, but if your intention is to influence my opinion rather than seek it, then I have better things to do with my time.
If you feel I have misunderstood the question or your intention, please enlighten me.
The courtesy of a prompt reply would be appreciated.
I'll let you know what I hear, but Zogby stock has dropped precipitously in my mind (I know I'm late to the party and some of you had suggested as much long ago... but this is a specific data point rather than vague innuendo, is it too late for me to dogpile on Zogby with y'all?)