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You provided no link, but the data is combined from more than one source. That tells me two things. First, the data is cherry-picked and second, site this data was collected from is in the business of cherry-picking data.
The fact that you took "basic statistics" doesn't justify the fact that you can't tell what 300 million people think based on the opinions of 1,000. That's called "common sense," and I got an A in that.
If the sample is truly random (that is the hard part), 1000 is a pretty good sample size for a population of 300 million. (Confidence interval around 4% with confidence level at 99%.) The math works.
That poll just asked for political leanings, not positions on health care.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fred314X
The fact that you took "basic statistics" doesn't justify the fact that you can't tell what 300 million people think based on the opinions of 1,000. That's called "common sense," and I got an A in that.
And as a couple of other posters pointed out, we don't know who those thousand-and-five people were. Were they rich people, poor people, Democrats, Republicans, easterners, westerners. Were they even American citizens, for heaven's sake? Do you have any idea, and if so, why are you keeping it a secret?
You can look up the methodology. I'd the Wall Street Journal is both reliable and conservative.
It's funny to see how some wingnuts here argue that a poll of 1005 subjects isn't valid because nothing short of a general election would count. Well, we just had a general election which Obama clearly won. Of course, the same wingnuts would argue that Obama stole the election, so that doesn't count either. There's no plumbing the depths of right wingnuttery.....
Considering that the same outfit had the party ID at 7, one week before the election and now that want you to believe that democrats have doubled that figure...in this environment.....when all the polls show obama sliding? I don't think so.
That poll just asked for political leanings, not positions on health care.
The poll is not just about health care, is it?
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