Photo by chloed1andonly
Yes, I know that that is a phone pole, not a phone poll. A surprising number of Flickr photos are labelled with the double L spelling, however.
Yesterday I spent 20 minutes with a pollster from the National Annenberg Election Survey (naes08.org). He began by saying he was with the University of Pennsylvania, so if you hear that, now you know who it is.
It was quite interesting. He asked about the pres and VP candidates, asked me to rate various national figures on a scale of 0 to 10 (I really felt a need for negative numbers, alas... so many people who deserve to be ranked lower than each other). Asked which TV news I watch and papers I read and blogs I read and which candidates I felt they all support. Interestingly, while he had Dailykos and Talkingpointsmemo on his list, he didn't know about Firedoglake.
One helpful hint in case you get polled... they will sometimes take answers they didn't offer. For example: Who is more responsible for the economic crisis, congressional Republicans or congressional Democrats? I answered "Bush" and that was fine.
I also discovered that this was the poll that seriously ticked me off a few weeks ago. I remember reading about a ridiculous set of questions they had asked: do you agree that these characteristics apply to most Whites? To most Blacks? A small group (I think about 12%) refused to respond to such a ridiculous question. Last night I was pleased to have the chance to join them. Seriously, can you think of any characteristic that most members of a racial group have, at least more than any other racial group?
They also wanted to know who I would vote for in the congressional race. I told them who and added I would have to hold my nose to do it.
After the interview was over the pollster told me that he had heard fewer "nose holding" comments about the presidential candidates - on both sides - than in previous elections. I suppose that's a good thing.
At the end of the poll their were some weird Civics 101 questions intended to see if I knew anything about the US system of government. How do justices get on the Supreme Court? Elected by the people, voted on by the justices, or nominated by the president and approved by the Senate? Scary to think how many people get that wrong... and can vote.
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