I just got polled...

[ljm2002]

...it was sort of fun...

I refused to respond to some of the questions since they were slanted, and I told the poller so. For example, one question was whether I supported offshore and other drilling that would bring down the price of gas -- I told her, first, the oil companies have 68 million acres that they are not drilling on at all, they should start there first; and second, it won't bring down the price of gas, and it's a biased question and I won't answer it. There were a few others like that -- like, regardless of whether you think we should have gone into Iraq, do you think we owe it to them to provide for their security and only do an orderly withdrawal -- I said that question is biased, no one has ever proposed anything else besides an orderly withdrawal, I won't answer that. She also asked which candidate I had supported in the Democratic primaries (I had identified as a Democrat by that time) -- Obama or Clinton? I told her Dennis Kucinich. She said, "Sorry?" ha ha, caught her unable to stray from the script...

Another question was, what is your most important issue: she listed about ten issues, from health care to taxes to "national security". I told her that my most important issue is that we are engaged in an illegal war (I did not say the more accurate "occupation" since I did not want to confuse her), so I guess that falls under national security, but I told her that I declined to answer because national security would be interpreted wrongly.

They also had questions about how "angry" or "concerned" you are about certain issues, on a scale of 0 to 100. One of them was "liberal judges allowing gay marriage" -- I said 0. Another was the fact that a Democratic president would appoint "two or three liberal Supreme Court judges" -- I told her I would answer 0 because not only am I not angry or concerned about that possibility, I am actually thrilled that it could happen!

But they were not all slanted, in fact most of the questions were pretty straight up or down, and the "angry" or "concerned" issues included Iraq and health care and plenty that I do care about and am angry about -- so I answered about 80, 85% of the questions overall.

It was fun!

[ret5hd]

1. the slanted ones were the only ones they were interested in.

[Hippo_Tron]

6. Yea, those slanted polls aren't designed to conduct accurate research

They are designed to push an agenda and have "evidence" that backs up that agenda.

[Lasher]

7. Thence the term, 'push poll.' n/t

[Hippo_Tron]

10. That's actually not what a push poll is

A push poll isn't really a poll, it's a way of spreading false rumors about a candidate under the guise of conducting a poll.

For example, if this were 2000 and you were Karl Rove and your shit-for-brains candidate was about to get his ass beaten you might conduct a push poll asking, "If you knew that John McCain fathered an illegitimate black child, would you be more or less likely to vote for him?"

Or, lets say it's 2008 and you were Karl Rove and your shit-for-brains candidate was about to get his ass beaten you might conduct a push poll asking, "If you knew that Barack Obama fathered an illegitimate black Muslim child, would you be more or less likely to vote for him?"

[JBoris]

11. It's worse than a push poll. It's a repub talking point in the making. "Drilling is the will...

of the people."
Actually I've already seen that talking point, I just heard it live on C-Span not 20 mins ago. I knew it was BS, this just confirms it.

[Hippo_Tron]

12. It's the will of the American people on the premise that it will lower the price of gas

And IMO it will lower the price of gas but very marginally. The laws of supply and demand only function like they are supposed to in competitive markets. The oil industry is an oligopoly and arguably a cartel. No matter how much supply there is, they will set the prices higher because there is no competition.

If I were President I would instruct the Attorney General to take Exxon-Mobil to court for anti-trust violations just like Teddy Roosevelt took Standard Oil to court for the same thing 100 years ago. Exxon-Mobil is basically just a re-incarnation of Standard Oil by having all of the companies that it was broken up into merge with each other.

[ljm2002]

9. No doubt...

...but it was fun picking them out and then explaining to the drone that the question was biased and improperly framed, and declining to answer. And I got to provide her with information that she has probably never heard, so all in all I felt good about it.

[ColbertWatcher]

2. Good for you!

Although, I bet your phone number is now on some kind of list.

[Clovis Sangrail]

3. phone sex

Tell them you're naked and talk to them like it's phone sex.
It makes it much more fun.. though they never let me finish.

[yellowdogintexas]

4. funny, I had a poll call tonight too. Mine was press 1 for R and press 2 for D

then after I did that, press 1 for McCain and 2 for Obama So I did that

and that was that.

it was totally an auto call.

[exothermic]

5. You're lucky --- many of us are being poled

:cry:

[ljm2002]

8. Not so lucky...

...I count myself in that group as well! :-)

[LisaL]

13. I just got polled too.

It took forever. And the girl kept pronouncing McCain's name as McLain.