Persuasive Poll Questions?

[Lunar]

I know of "push polls" but I'm not sure if the phrase is used specifically for lies and misleading, leading questions.

Would it be a logical tactic for Kerry's people to call and ask questions that they want voters to be asking themselves before they vote?

Examples:

"Who do you think would handle [insert domestic issue] better?"
"How important is the existing administration's honesty and directness to your vote"
"Has George Bush done enough to deserve being reelected in your point of view?"

Bush examples:
"Who would better handle [insert international issue]?"
"How important is it to keep consistant leadership in times of turmoil such as the changeover in Iraq?"
"Tax cuts are awsome, agree or disagree?"

etc.

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

I know of "push polls" but I'm not sure if the phrase is used specifically for lies and misleading, leading questions.

Would it be a logical tactic for Kerry's people to call and ask questions that they want voters to be asking themselves before they vote?

Examples:

"Who do you think would handle [insert domestic issue] better?"
"How important is the existing administration's honesty and directness to your vote"
"Has George Bush done enough to deserve being reelected in your point of view?"

Bush examples:
"Who would better handle [insert international issue]?"
"How important is it to keep consistant leadership in times of turmoil such as the changeover in Iraq?"
"Tax cuts are awsome, agree or disagree?"

etc.

Most good polls will ask the horserace question before they ask any questions on issues or candidate positions.  At least that's the way the firm I used to work for did it.

A lot of times candidates will use polls to test out possible messages, and probe their strengths and weakness (and their opponent's).  I don't consider these push polls.

A push poll is when you put a campaign message into a poll in the hopes that that message will seep out from the poll respondent into the general public.  In other words, if the goal of the poll is not to test the respondent's reaction to message, but simply to broadcast the message in the hope it be regurgitated by the respondent later on.

[Lunar]

What I was thinking about was a poll designed to make a person ask themself favorable questions before they vote.  In a sense, it persuades them and has no real other purpose.

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

What I was thinking about was a poll designed to make a person ask themself favorable questions before they vote.  In a sense, it persuades them and has no real other purpose.

Candidates pay for polls in order to get accurate information.   They don't want their polls to be biased.  They also usually aren't concerned with persuading individual voters by calling them under the guise of a poll.  This is a very inefficient form of advertising.  Push polls only "work" if they are controversial enough that the respondent independly spreads their allegations to a larger audience.

[struct310]

How about the NYT man-on-the-street interviews of anti-Bushies?
Or this push poll question...
How many lives are able to be sacrificed in Iraq, in your opinion?
insert set of numbers for deaths

or inserting an Abu Gharib question right before the Bush or Kerry question.