Check out the Obama Poll

***COMMANDER*** · 09-07-10, 10:55 AM

Results from almost 100,000 voters. Poll is still live.

http://polls.newsmax.com/results/obama-economy.html

**Rawr** · 09-07-10, 11:01 AM

Just throwing this out... if 60% of the people in that poll voted for McCain, chances are that all of those answers have a slightly (or more than slight) republican bias.

**WickedTribe** · 09-07-10, 11:05 AM

Wow! Newsmax readers don't like Obama? Shocking! In other news, when released close to the planet, things gravitate towards the center of the earth! Amazing!

**Alundil** · 09-07-10, 11:11 AM

Originally Posted by WickedTribe

Wow! Newsmax readers don't like Obama? Shocking! In other news, when released close to the planet, things gravitate towards the center of the earth! Amazing!

LOL I know right? That would be like a poll of HuffPo or MMfA readers on G.W. Hehe.

**Red_Lizard2** · 09-07-10, 11:49 AM

Not really an accurate poll for numerous reasons. In fact one site I hit had the averages for Obama approval ratings (from the polls) and Approval of Dems/Republicans in Congress. Of course I can't find the damn site -_-, but did find that RCP has their own averaging of his approval rating with the sources used (and the amount of people they polled).

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epo...oval-1044.html

I did like that even Fox News' poll showed close to half approve, half disapprove.

**Arreo** · 09-07-10, 11:56 AM

Yeah... there are a lot of reasons that poll isn't accurate for a larger picture view. It simply proves that people who have the internet, read Newsmax, and self-select to take a poll about Obama disapprove of him. Again, if you want to see more accurate polling you need to look at larger and more statistically established sources.

**Tick** · 09-07-10, 01:13 PM

Originally Posted by WickedTribe

Wow! Newsmax readers don't like Obama? Shocking! In other news, when released close to the planet, things gravitate towards the center of the earth! Amazing!

I'll admit, I lol'd.

**deathgodusmc** · 09-07-10, 02:08 PM

You guys say the same thing about every poll that is posted. Let me know when you find one that everyone can say is unbias.

**Arreo** · 09-07-10, 02:12 PM

Originally Posted by deathgodusmc

You guys say the same thing about every poll that is posted. Let me know when you find one that everyone can say is unbias.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/publ..._tracking_poll

http://www.gallup.com/poll/116479/ba...-approval.aspx

Pretty much anything linked to here: http://www.pollingreport.com/obama_job.htm

I want to be able to see and reference four things things:

1. The exact question asked.
2. The sample size.
3. The population the sample was chosen from.
4. The margin of error.

Then you determine the reliability of the poll based on those things.

**Arreo** · 09-07-10, 02:30 PM

For example, this is how a well designed poll is run:

http://www.gallup.com/se/128147/Worl...thodology.aspx
http://www.gallup.com/poll/110380/Ho...king-work.aspx

You seek to eliminate all sources of bias, and those that you can't eliminate you account and correct for.

Self-selection give you massive sampling bias which is almost impossible to correct for, thus rendering your results very narrow in scope. IE you end up like this poll with a statistically accurate description of the results as being "75% of readers of Newsmax.com who responded to a voluntary poll said that they disapproved of Obama".

It's still a result, but it isn't "47% of adults nationwide (± 2.5) approve of the way Obama is handling his job as President"