Cast Your Vote!

[audiopro]

Okay, now hopefully we can get some honest participation. I'd like to invite everyone to take this test and display their results in this thread, along with their opinions of the results. In addition, please select which candidate the results showed you favored.

Please everyone be hoest.. I am curious to see how well we know our candidates and how well they support what we do...

www.bushkerrytest.com

Here are my results:

We assigned 1 point for "somewhat important"; 2 points for "important" and 3 points for "very important." Based on the answers you chose, you scored 34 points for President George W. Bush and 9 points for Senator John Kerry.
Your views most align with the views of Republican Candidate President George W. Bush.

P.S. You do not have to put in your real email address, it displays your results at the end. Email is only needed if you intend to participate in their online voting.

[dags_lax]

I took a look at quick look at that BushKerry test poll link that you reference. What you have there is what is called a push poll. A push poll is designed, through the ways that questions are worded, to present a candidate or position in a more favorable light The purpose of push polling is not to gauge the opinion of the person taking the poll but to shape their opinion. This tactic was used very effectively by the Bush campaign against in the 2000 primaries against John McCain.

[audiopro]

I had two friends here take the test, one of which is pretty educated in politics and plans to vote for Kerry. His results were 38 Kerry and 23 for Bush. The other person has yet to take it..

So your basically saying though that this poll is designed to deceive the person taking it, into selecting answers that will likely favor only one person?

[dags_lax]

So your basically saying though that this poll is designed to deceive the person taking it, into selecting answers that will likely favor only one person?

That is what a push poll does. Not only does it seek to influence the person responding to the poll but also to influence others by distorting reality when the poll results are published.

One thing that needs to be looked at is who is behind the polling and the methodology of the pool. Brad O'Leary, the publisher of the O'Leary Report newsletter and a conservative political consultant, is the person behind this poll. Also for a poll to have much value respondents need to be selected at random which no online internet poll can claim. For a polling technique an internet poll is about as accurate as Cosmo sex quiz.

In the case of this poll I didn't find the questions so grossly worded as to try and elicit only one response, but merely to nudge a respondents answers slightly toward the GOP stand on the issues. That being the case I would imagine that when the results from this Bushkerrytest poll are released you will find that the a larger percentage of respondents are said to support Bush than what is actually the case base on election results.

As for your Kerry supporting friend I would imagine that because of his greater understanding of the issues his mind was made up before responding to the poll therefore the wording of the questions had little effect on his answers. Perhaps you should tell your friend that some one else thought the questions were slightly slanted then ask your friend to look at the questions again and see what he thinks of how the questions were worded. The most effective deception is when the deceived doesn’t realize they are being deceived.

[mechmat]

I took the test and was decidedly pro-Kerry. I don't know anything about push polls, but on many of the questions I had knowledge of the particular issue or program the question was referring to, so I didn't necessarily pay specific attention to the exact wording, I just resonded according to my knowledge of the subject.