What's the fricking point of poll questions like these? RE: CNN/Alito

You see these stupid-ass online poll questions all the time in which NOTHING substantive can be drawn from the results.


Did Samuel Alito's testimony help you decide if he is suitable to be a Supreme Court justice?

Yes
No
I already decided.

What's the fricking point of that question?

First of all, it does not distinguish between supporters and opponents of Alito or whether the testimony helped make you more supportive of Alito or more opposed.

Did Alito's testimony "help" you decide. If you are undecided about something because you lack enough information on options, doesn't any additional information on the options "help" you reach a decision?

How hard would it have been to have the options.
Yes. I am now firmly opposed to Alito's nomination.
Yes. I am now firmly supportive to Alito's nomination
I am still undecided but now I am now more opposed to Alito's nomination.
I am still undecided but now I am now more supportive to Alito's nomination.
No. I was firmly opposed to Alito's nomination before the testimony.
No. I was firmly supportive to Alito's nomination before the testimony.
No. I am still as undecided as before.

or somehting like that.

divided into two. But that may be what they are trying to get away from. Who knows.

Notice if they ask a controversial question how they dilute the vote by dividing it up.

Obviously, they do not want to know the real answers to their polling questions.

is that it increases the number of hits on their site--a very valuable sales tool.
Think about it. Say they normally get 20,000 hits a day and they put up a poll. Suddenly they're getting 100,000 hits per day. A number of successive polls puts them in the big, big money bracket. $$$$$$$$$$

has no idea who Samual Alito is nor any other information on which to base their poll vote.
Oh, that sounds like an American election. They don't care.

"I already decided" is a poll question? Shouldn't that read, don't bother me with the facts.

perhaps CNN is trying to guage the feeling of the public towards doing away with hearings altogether? Maybe what they are trying to find out is if anyone actually changed their mind based on the hearing, or whether people felt it was more than a Repub PR session bedore confirming him anyway?

I actually think this is a valid question but it shouldnt be veiled like this. They should just come out and ask if people believe the hearings actually serve any purpose.

had to call SBC (Now AT&T powered by SBC)

First call they ended up disconnecting me (imagine that, the phone company disconnecting a customer in the middle of a conversation after a gazillion prompts and endless waiting)

Second person was not really helpful...fax your tax exempt certificate, yadda yadda, we will credit sales tax on your new lines (not that my account does not already have more than 35 phone lines, on an existing tax exempt account). SO, at the end of the call she wanted to survey me about my experience:

"We at SBC are concerned that you have a quality experience. I would like to ask you if you felt our service today was very satisfactory or satisfactory?"

Uh, that's it? Just those two? Yep....so I told her that was not enough choices, I mean, what if my experience today sucked? She said that is all the choices. So, I told her satisfactory. She then asked why it was not very satisfactory (sounded offended as well and hurt). I told her about the hang up, told her I felt she was not as helpful as she could have been (like crediting the sales tax NOW cause I KNOW I will have to fax that certificate at least 4 more times)

See how polls and surveys work? SBC can NEVER critique itself if their survey questions include only the choices of Very Satisfactory or Satisfactory.