So last night I got a call from a political pollster up in Syracuse, NY. I had some time, so I couldn't resist having some fun with him.
His questions centered on the March Texas primary and focused on the local congressional race, not the presidential race, and like all poll questions are what we lawyers called "leading questions" designed to elicit the response the pollster's employer wants. Nuance is not a virtue aspired to by these folks either. I had to argue with him about the premise of many of his questions.
So I gave him the most contradictory answers I could think up. I professed to be a moderate, evangelical born-again Christian who didn't care about illegal immigration, gun control or federal constitutional amendments making English the official national language or making marriage only between a man and a woman. When he went through a litany of Texas Republican office-holders, I told him I had an unfavorable opinion of half of them. (Some of that is actually true.)
Wondering why the polls in Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan and Nevada didn't predict the results very well? There must be a lot of other people joining me in having fun with the pollsters!
His questions centered on the March Texas primary and focused on the local congressional race, not the presidential race, and like all poll questions are what we lawyers called "leading questions" designed to elicit the response the pollster's employer wants. Nuance is not a virtue aspired to by these folks either. I had to argue with him about the premise of many of his questions.
So I gave him the most contradictory answers I could think up. I professed to be a moderate, evangelical born-again Christian who didn't care about illegal immigration, gun control or federal constitutional amendments making English the official national language or making marriage only between a man and a woman. When he went through a litany of Texas Republican office-holders, I told him I had an unfavorable opinion of half of them. (Some of that is actually true.)
Wondering why the polls in Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan and Nevada didn't predict the results very well? There must be a lot of other people joining me in having fun with the pollsters!
7 comments:
Way to go, QG!!!!
I love it! It ranks with my telling them "sure you can talk to her, let me go get her." Then putting down the phone to see just how long they'll wait till disconnecting. Gotta get your giggles where you can, eh?
When my latest pollster began the LOOONG list of our local Republican candidates, I quickly (but politely) said, "Ma'am, before you go through all ten of those names, I'm not voting for any of them." "I only have six," she said. I assured her there were at least ten (at last count). Rather incongruously, she remarked, "Oh well, I'm a little old lady, it doesn't matter to me," thanked me, and hung up. Okay...
Too funny! I'll remember your ideas if anyone calls me.
Hi QG!
Please tell Beatrice I've tagged her for a meme!
Amie
I grew up in New Hampshire, and spoofing pollsters is a traditional art.
According to someone I know in New Hampshire, the spoofing was in full force this year.
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