The Limits Of Polls

Peter Suderman tackles healthcare polling:

Kristen Soltis, a pollster with the Republican-affiliated Winston group, says that "what you're actually looking for is a question that at least gives a little bit of context." The most revealing polls, she says, are those that questions "whether people agree or disagree with what a policy intends to do." So rather than ask whether people support health-care reform generally, or whether they like Obama's plan, effective poll questions seek to assess support for specific proposals—and tend to explain what the proposals are designed to do. 

Indeed, questions that have asked about "Obama's plan" are particularly egregious violators of the tenets of good polling: As of yet, no such thing as an "Obama plan" exists. So when CNN asked respondents whether or not they "favor or oppose Obama's plan to reform health care" and the NBC/Wall Street Journal polling team asked whether "Barack Obama's health care plan" is a good idea, they were asking respondents to voice an opinion on an imaginary concept.