That was a self-selecting MAIL poll with loaded questions and no explanation for methodology.
You obviously missed the point I was making. The point is, there are so many polls out there saying so many different things, that they simply become meaningless. We have polls show doctors both in favor and against reform. We have polls show people both in favor and against public options. With something on the scale and scope as this omnibus health care reform bill, no one really knows what to think, even the professionals.
But it's important to actually look at the methodology of individual polls to determine whether one might be valid and the other crap. It's the intellectually lazy approach to simply say "Poll A says this, but Poll B says the opposite; so the truth must lie somewhere in between or otherwise be too muddled to clearly discern". (This is, FWIW, the MSM approach to anything, which gives lunatics from all fringes, but particularly the birthers, any semblance of credability. Instead of actually reporting the bloody facts, they merely put up two opposing spokespersons, ask both an equal ratio of pointed and softball questions no matter how outlandish and devoid of reality the position of one person might be, and avoid all charges of <gasp> bias by declaring the matter "a controversy". But I digress greatly).
538 makes some ex cellant points. The best (but hardly the only) is that this same pollster had McCain leading 18-24 year old voters a week before the election
74-22! 538 goes on to point out several other obvious problems with the poll, but that number should give you a good taste.
My own observations: I very much want to know more about this sample purchased from a list broker.
Finally, the more I think about this: "45% of Doctors Would Consider Quitting if Congress Passes Health Care Overhaul".
"I declare shenanigans!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdjFKDrK1vYUnless those results are outright falsified by the pollster, to get those numbers this poll picked
heavily from the lunatic fringe and is anything but representative.
Now the Mt. Sinai Hospital poll that originally started this thread was admittedly commissioned by two doctors supporting health care reform, but I have yet to hear any specific critiques of their polling methods. Until I do, I'm FAR more willing to trust its results than this piece of dung IDB/TIPP is trying to pass off.
