Real people and Statistics

Posted on Tuesday 21 October 2008

I came across an interesting tidbit at The Trail (WaPo):

In today’s Post-ABC tracking poll, Obama is winning 22 percent of conservatives. That’s his best showing yet among these voters, and if the percent holds on Election Day, it would be higher than conservative support for any Democratic nominee since 1980.

Obama also wins 12 percent support among Republicans in the tracking poll — exactly double Kerry’s 2004 Election Day haul.

I haven’t paid much attention to polls, other than noticing general trends.  For all I know (since they never call me), the pollsters are plucking numbers from thin air.  But I do believe there are real people underlying this one.

In fact, I know there are.

1 Comment for 'Real people and Statistics'

  1.  
    October 21, 2008 | 10:59 pm
     

    When a pollster or someone conducting a survey calls the Enrico household, they are told “our hourly rate is $200 per hour, paid in advance, with a one hour minimum.”

    when we first initiated this policy, we had to repeat ourselves several times before the hourly worker in the cubicle could even grasp the concept. Recently, we have sometimes received counteroffers: how about a $20 fourbux gift card?

    Nope.

    So far, no pollster has seen the merits of the value proposition, and so, we remain unpolled and unsurveyed.

    We don’t work for free, except for the boy scouts and for certain other favored non-profit organizations.

    “Are you working for free?” we sometimes ask. Oddly, they aren’t.

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