Thread: Editorial: Poll after Poll?

Editorial: Poll after Poll?
Apr 25, 2007
We ask what is up with the latest national polls over illegal aliens and the federal “guest worker” proposal? What we found is not much is up as far as the public mood is concerned, with one significant exception as to the change in language pollsters are using in conducting their polls!

The keywords for getting positive results for allowing illegal immigrants to remain is “earn,” “guest,” and “path.” Taken together these words beg for a sympathetic response for so-called comprehensive reformers to use to support their immigration reform position.

When Bush last met with Mexico’s former President Fox on immigration, ABC did a national poll using that dreaded “amnesty” word to describe Bush’s guest worker proposal. ABC found 52 percent opposed the Presidents guest worker proposal for Mexicans, while 57 percent opposed it for immigrants from other countries. Now you know why pollsters do not use that awful word “amnesty.”

To come to a better understanding of the public mood it might be best to ignore so-called national polls and focus on State polls. However, this might not paint such a supportive picture for pro-reformers who want illegal workers to remain. Elon University Poll released yesterday shows North Carolinians oppose by 67 percent allowing employed; undocumented immigrants to remain in the U.S. Pollster Bruce Merrill found only 17 percent of Arizonians supported implementing a guest worker program.

Does not look any better when we reach California either.

A Field Poll, produced for The Press-Enterprise and other California media subscribers, measured California voter opinions on the issue of illegal immigration. It surveyed 570 randomly selected voters statewide by telephone from March 20-31. The margin of error is 4.5 percentage points.

That poll found 54 percent supported “rounding up, detaining and deporting illegal immigrants.” Strangely, the same poll also found 83 percent support “long-term ‘undocumented workers’ on the path to citizenship.” Wonder what the response would had been by substituting “undocumented” with “illegal immigrants”?

In February Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,892 “registered voters” nationwide and found 62 percent opposed to making it easier for illegal immigrants to become citizens, with immigrant families opposed 56 - 36 percent. "There's not much sympathy for illegal immigrants. Three fifths of Americans, across geographic lines, don't want it to be easier for them to become citizens. Only in blue states, where Sen. John Kerry won the 2004 Presidential contest, is there slight support for making it easier for illegal workers to become legal," said Maurice Carroll, Director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Earlier in the month Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times conducted a poll that found substantial concern over immigration, with 54 percent of Americans saying illegal immigrants hurt the nation's economy and 77 percent saying employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers should be punished.

Polls can be anything you want them to be if you know who and how to ask the right questions. For Bush and supporters of his comprehensive immigration reform, he had better hope national pollsters continue phrasing poll questions to maximize sympathetic responses and stay away from registered voters, or otherwise the real public mood that matters most will end up bursting his favorable bubble.

http://idexer.com/2007/04/25/editorial- ... -poll.html

That's right! It's all in "HOW" you ask the question!

Hold Their Feet To The Fire Rally - Roy Beck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEEUtFQF5Fc

OK, I just wrote to a couple of talk show hosts here in the Republic of Massachusetts, regarding the pollsters that have the most clout with the feeble minded politicians. These talk show hosts are conservative and ran campaigns for over 25 years. My hope is that we can focus our efforts on these folks as it will hopefully have a good impact.