… A few weeks ago, Republican pollster Frank Luntz spent hours showing a focus group of Donald Trump supporters television ads that criticized their candidate. The Washington Post’s Dave Weigel described one ad as “not so subtly comparing the Republican front-runner to Adolf Hitler.” Those attacks on Trump made him […] Read more »
Americans Evaluate the Balance between Security and Civil Liberties
In the aftermath of recent high-profile attacks on Western targets by Islamic extremists, fear of terrorism has grown while the public remains divided on whether the struggle against terrorism is worth the loss of some rights. In the latest Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, 54 percent of […] Read more »
Harry’s Guide To 2016 Election Polls
WNYC’s “On The Media” has a great series called the “Breaking News Consumer’s Handbook,” and as part of our ongoing partnership with them, we put together a handy list of rules for interpreting election polls. Listen to the whole episode, or just to my dulcet tones: [audio] But I also […] Read more »
Americans’ Faith in Honesty, Ethics of Police Rebounds
After dipping to 48% in 2014 amid a national firestorm over police treatment of young black men, the rating Americans give the honesty and ethical standards of police has rebounded to 56%. This is more consistent with the 54% to 58% ratings Gallup found between 2010 and 2013. CONT. Lydia […] Read more »
Trump Boom Or Trump Bubble?
… Understanding the dynamics of the modern media environment is an important skill for a candidate, and it’s a skill that Trump has mastered. But it’s also important to understand the effects that media coverage can have on the campaign and on the polls. By one measure we’ll get to […] Read more »
Why horse race campaign polls are mostly worthless this far ahead of the voting
… Horse race polls have become the junk food of political journalism. We consume too many of them, too often. I’m as guilty as anyone else — and maybe more; I don’t just read about the polls, I write about them. (That makes me a pusher.) But here’s an inconvenient […] Read more »