Questioning the sanity of the electorate
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  Questioning the sanity of the electorate
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Alcon
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« on: August 15, 2005, 12:44:47 AM »

Pouring over some old exit polls, I came across this, from 2000's CNN poll:

13% of the population characterized Bush as being "too liberal."

Of those people, 81% (or about 11% of the overall population) voted for Gore instead.  In other words, 11% of the population thought Bush was too liberal and voted for Gore - 1 in about 9 voters.

About 1 in 256 people thought Bush was too liberal, but voted for Nader.

Thus, about 14% of Nader voters (around 1 in 7)  thought Bush was "too liberal."

Sad, sad, sad.
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jfern
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« Reply #1 on: August 15, 2005, 02:31:10 AM »

There's some funny sh**t in the exit polls. A couple of percent of the people approve of candidate A, disapprove of B, and voted for B. If Nader wasn't running, some Gore voters switch to Bush, and vice versa.
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minionofmidas
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« Reply #2 on: August 15, 2005, 03:21:02 AM »

Some of these people prob'ly don't know the meaning of the term "liberal" - as in that TV sketch ten years back or so where journalists asked (real) passers-by "Did you know that Dr Kohl is a heterosexual?" My favorite reply came from some old couple: "If we had known that, we wouldn't have voted for him."

Others might know the meaning of the term, and know the media doesn't, and are making a point.
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Filuwaúrdjan
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« Reply #3 on: August 15, 2005, 03:25:27 AM »

My favorite reply came from some old couple: "If we had known that, we wouldn't have voted for him."

Grin Grin Grin
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Virginian87
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« Reply #4 on: August 15, 2005, 08:34:22 AM »

Exit polls have become so unreliable it's hard to trust them anymore.  Remeber how they predicted Kerry victories in Ohio?  Then again, maybe we are a nation of stupid people.  A recent study showed that only a relatively small percentage of Americans could find Iraq on a map.
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skybridge
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« Reply #5 on: August 15, 2005, 10:51:56 AM »

Pouring over some old exit polls, I came across this, from 2000's CNN poll:

13% of the population characterized Bush as being "too liberal."

Of those people, 81% (or about 11% of the overall population) voted for Gore instead.  In other words, 11% of the population thought Bush was too liberal and voted for Gore - 1 in about 9 voters.

About 1 in 256 people thought Bush was too liberal, but voted for Nader.

Thus, about 14% of Nader voters (around 1 in 7)  thought Bush was "too liberal."

Sad, sad, sad.

None of that's insane compared to voting for Bush!
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Virginian87
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« Reply #6 on: August 15, 2005, 10:53:57 AM »

Pouring over some old exit polls, I came across this, from 2000's CNN poll:

13% of the population characterized Bush as being "too liberal."

Of those people, 81% (or about 11% of the overall population) voted for Gore instead.  In other words, 11% of the population thought Bush was too liberal and voted for Gore - 1 in about 9 voters.

About 1 in 256 people thought Bush was too liberal, but voted for Nader.

Thus, about 14% of Nader voters (around 1 in 7)  thought Bush was "too liberal."

Sad, sad, sad.

None of that's insane compared to voting for Bush!

HAHAHAHA!  Nice one.
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ag
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« Reply #7 on: August 15, 2005, 12:00:34 PM »

May be some of these people had an "unAmerican" notion of what "liberal" means. In Europe or in Latin America, or almost everywhere else in the world, for that matter. disliking "liberals" means disliking free markets.  US is pretty much unique in the (mis)use of the term.  If a large proportion of these people were Hispanic, the answer would be straigtforward: in the discourse south of the border Bush is "neo-liberal", and Kerry is not (or not to the same extent).  That's simple.
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Alcon
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« Reply #8 on: August 15, 2005, 12:41:12 PM »

May be some of these people had an "unAmerican" notion of what "liberal" means. In Europe or in Latin America, or almost everywhere else in the world, for that matter. disliking "liberals" means disliking free markets.  US is pretty much unique in the (mis)use of the term.  If a large proportion of these people were Hispanic, the answer would be straigtforward: in the discourse south of the border Bush is "neo-liberal", and Kerry is not (or not to the same extent).  That's simple.

That's the first thought that went through my mind.  Perhaps it is primarily international immigrants that dislike Bush, and thus didn't want to say "just fine."  This and a mix of total idiots.
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jfern
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« Reply #9 on: August 15, 2005, 01:00:45 PM »

Exit polls have become so unreliable it's hard to trust them anymore.  Remeber how they predicted Kerry victories in Ohio?  Then again, maybe we are a nation of stupid people.  A recent study showed that only a relatively small percentage of Americans could find Iraq on a map.

Exit polls are usually pretty accurate. The fact that the exit polls were off in the Ukraine "proved" that the election was stolen.

For something with probability near 0% or 100%, the MOE is smaller.
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Alcon
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« Reply #10 on: August 15, 2005, 01:22:03 PM »

Exit polls have become so unreliable it's hard to trust them anymore.  Remeber how they predicted Kerry victories in Ohio?  Then again, maybe we are a nation of stupid people.  A recent study showed that only a relatively small percentage of Americans could find Iraq on a map.

Exit polls are usually pretty accurate. The fact that the exit polls were off in the Ukraine "proved" that the election was stolen.

For something with probability near 0% or 100%, the MOE is smaller.

Normally exit polls can be inaccurate on the state level, but the national one in this case has 13,000 respondents, which is sufficient to achieve statistical integrity, I believe.
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A18
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« Reply #11 on: August 15, 2005, 01:26:56 PM »

Exit polls have become so unreliable it's hard to trust them anymore. Remeber how they predicted Kerry victories in Ohio? Then again, maybe we are a nation of stupid people. A recent study showed that only a relatively small percentage of Americans could find Iraq on a map.

Exit polls are usually pretty accurate. The fact that the exit polls were off in the Ukraine "proved" that the election was stolen.

Uh, no. The exit polls were a side issue.
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CARLHAYDEN
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« Reply #12 on: August 15, 2005, 04:25:26 PM »

Some of these people prob'ly don't know the meaning of the term "liberal" - as in that TV sketch ten years back or so where journalists asked (real) passers-by "Did you know that Dr Kohl is a heterosexual?" My favorite reply came from some old couple: "If we had known that, we wouldn't have voted for him."

Others might know the meaning of the term, and know the media doesn't, and are making a point.

And, did they know his wife is a thespian?

Old joke from an actual North Carolina Senate race about fifty years ago.
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J. J.
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« Reply #13 on: August 15, 2005, 04:53:09 PM »

Some of these people prob'ly don't know the meaning of the term "liberal" - as in that TV sketch ten years back or so where journalists asked (real) passers-by "Did you know that Dr Kohl is a heterosexual?" My favorite reply came from some old couple: "If we had known that, we wouldn't have voted for him."

Others might know the meaning of the term, and know the media doesn't, and are making a point.

And, did they know his wife is a thespian?

Old joke from an actual North Carolina Senate race about fifty years ago.

Florida, Claude Pepper's sister.

Ole Claude, however, was a practicing homo sapian who admitted to matriculating at college.  :-)
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CARLHAYDEN
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« Reply #14 on: August 15, 2005, 06:38:38 PM »

Yes, it was one of the most amusing diatribes in American political history.

'Red' Pepper was one of the very few Senators to take a demotion to Representative.

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dazzleman
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« Reply #15 on: August 15, 2005, 09:24:13 PM »

Pouring over some old exit polls, I came across this, from 2000's CNN poll:

13% of the population characterized Bush as being "too liberal."

Of those people, 81% (or about 11% of the overall population) voted for Gore instead.  In other words, 11% of the population thought Bush was too liberal and voted for Gore - 1 in about 9 voters.

About 1 in 256 people thought Bush was too liberal, but voted for Nader.

Thus, about 14% of Nader voters (around 1 in 7)  thought Bush was "too liberal."

Sad, sad, sad.

Yes, a certain percentage of voters are complete idiots.  The idiocy of many people can be confirmed by reading letters to newspapers, or reading people's opinions when they are solicited by reporters on the street.  It can be pretty scary and discouraging.

Only two things make me feel better about it:

1.  The biggest idiots probably don't vote.
2.  Idiots probably cancel each other out on some level with their votes.

It's my belief (which may be delusionary) in these two things that allows me to sleep at night.Smiley
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