Saturday, May 13, 2006

Truthiness

New CNN poll shows 76% of respondents feel Bill Clinton was more honest than George W. Bush.

15 comments:

tully said...

From underneath this poll:

"This QuickVote is not scientific and reflects the opinions of only those Internet users who have chosen to participate. The results cannot be assumed to represent the opinions of Internet users in general, nor the public as a whole. The QuickVote sponsor is not responsible for content, functionality or the opinions expressed therein."

The Oracle said...

Yeah, but we all know it's true.

tully said...

Wow! Great Comeback, Oracle!

(I'm being sarcastic)

The Oracle said...

Actually, for that to be a comeback, wouldn't you have had to insult me first? Nice one, Tardi.

What an asshole.

Anthony said...

In truth, the result of any poll should be taken with a pinch of salt as all sorts of factors may come into play. Telephone polls and those carried out on the street are just as prone to have people not wanting to participate.

Admittedly the margin for error is lower in cases of more scientific polls, but it is still there. That said, once a common thread emerges, it is increasingly difficult to deny its significance.

tully said...

My guess is that this was an internet poll, probably conducted on CNNs website, which would without a doubt have had more liberal visitors than conservatives. The fact that it's called "QuickVote" suggests that it was one of those polls in the margins of a website- like the ones on Drudge Report, which you wouldn't put much stock in.

Andy said...

Little Cicero is probably right, as everyone knows conservatives can't handle either the objectivity or the intellectual rigor of anything but Fox.

tully said...

Hey, when I'm right, I'm right!

tully said...

Hey- wait a minute...

tully said...

Yeah- that was an insult!

Andy said...

LC, I do admit you make a fair point. We need to take these results with a grain of salt, aka a margin of error. But come on, this is CNN, not DailyKos. Any way you slice it, however you want to account for CNN skewing liberal, that's a pretty impressive majority there that says Shrub is less honest than Mr. Slick "I Did Not Have Sexual Relations With That Woman" Willy. I'm willing to bet that the sampling on these non-scientific quick polls is broad enough that the overall result is accurate -- especially when it's so lopsided.

tully said...

My intuition tells me differently, but I respect tremendously you're honesty. Thank you.

I guess we can both agree that these are politicians, and the American People trust politicians about as much as they trust a snake oil salesman.

Trickish Knave said...

98% of all statistics are bullshit.

tully said...

It' true you know, but of course many useful phrases of wit and wisdom use statistics, like:

You can fool 100% of the people 32% of the time and 43% of the people 100% of the time, but you can never fool 100% of the people 100% of the time.

Or is that not how that one goes.

Aethlos said...

lol trickish!