MetaFilter posts tagged with polls

Jesus who?

Brandon Blatcher — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:02:29 -0800

The End of Christian America. The percentage of self-identified Christians has fallen 10 points in the past two decades. How that statistic explains who we are now—and what, as a nation, we are about to become.

Do you like this post? a)Yes b)Of course c)How could I not? d)Maybe

Gyan — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 03:26:24 -0800

Rethinking Public Opinion - the immense importance of public opinion polling in American politics, and the under-reported problems at the heart of the enterprise, combine to call for a serious critique of the polling industry, its assumptions, and its method

Obama's Got Options, Baby.

Naberius — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 22:54:43 -0800

Maybe America needs Barack more than Barack needs America... It's got to be tough being Barack Obama these days. Just managing to hang onto a slim lead in the polls against a truly horrifying Republican ticket - after eight years in which a Republican administration has all but destroyed the nation. Having to explain to people over and over again that no, he's really not a Muslim, and people still don't believe him. Sarah Palin. Maybe America isn't worth Barack's trouble. Maybe there's other fish in the sea, America. Maybe you ought to think about that a little and stop being this way. Canada has an election coming up too, and given what they've got to work with, more and more Canadians are starting to take a hard look south of the border.

Obama: The Price of Being Black

wittgenstein — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:02:25 -0800

Obama: The Price of Being Black

Querying the noosphere

Baby_Balrog — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 09:18:24 -0800

According to a recent international survey, there remains no global consensus regarding who was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. "On average, 46 percent of those surveyed said al Qaeda was responsible, 15 percent said the U.S. government, 7 percent said Israel and 7 percent said some other perpetrator... The U.S. government was to blame, according to 23 percent of Germans and 15 percent of Italians." The poll was collected by World Public Opinion, a neat website filled with various polls about interesting topics.

Lies, Damn Lies, Statistics...and Voter Polls

jeanmari — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 09:40:29 -0800

Margins of Error We can't seem to let the future alone. Even though we often get predictions about it so wrong. Because, as Niels Bohr once said, "Prediction is very difficult. Especially if it is about the future." What are the origins of political polling (beware of awful interface design)? And how is political polling evolving?

What Muslims Really Think

anotherpanacea — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 07:12:38 -0800

Who are Muslims? Gallup has conducted a poll "in 40 predominantly Muslim nations and among significant Muslim populations in the West. It is the first set of unified and scientifically representative views from 1.3 billion Muslims globally." They'll be parsing and interpreting this data for years, but for the time being, they've offered some of their key results online and in print. See also, the Muslim-West Facts Initiative. (via) Some excerpts:
Do Muslims Want Democracy and Theocracy? What Makes a Radical? What Do Muslim Women Want? Islam and the West: Clash or Coexistence?
Initial results were published in 2006 in Foreign Policy: "What Makes a Muslim Radical?" in pdf.

The American way

Brian B. — Thu, 29 May 2008 19:37:03 -0800

State by state electoral college analysis and predictions for the main 2008 presidential candidates, based on polling data and updated daily. Special thanks to anotherpanacea and EarBucket, respectively, for posting those sites on metatalk recently.

95% of gaijin demand 70% more pie charts

soma lkzx — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 06:11:21 -0800

Election poll fatigue? Diversify your daily dose of stats with What Japan Thinks. Check out Japan's favorite emoticons, thoughts on drinking vinegar, and of course awwcats. And if you still really need something about the primaries, Hillary Clinton is the 4th-best-looking world politician.

Not as subtle and intricate as AskMefi. But way faster.

mdn — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 16:17:44 -0800

Ask 500 (or 100) people: Random participants answer each other's polls on prayer in school, the bible, philosophers, iraq, social habits, love & marriage, materialism, freedom of speech, or whatever topic of interest someone wants to open up for a very momentary spotlight, and reasonably accurate data. I just found the questions people choose to ask kind of interesting - often you learn as much from the way they frame their issue and the choices they offer as from the numbers that come back. Not sure if the current audience is skewed, but be warned results are occasionally depressing :)

Poo Bum Dicky Wee Wee!

Effigy2000 — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:51:44 -0800

People vandalising Wikipedia is hardly a new thing but now even the office of the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, is getting into the act. Website Wiki-Scanner (previously) has traced several edits to Wikipedia articles by the Prime Ministers staff, according to Australian newspaper The Courier Mail. And they aren't confined solely to the Wikipedia entry on the PM himself; there was even an act of vandalism on a martial-arts related entry, in which one of Howard's ministerial staffers wrote, “Poo bum dicky wee wee” on the page. Not good news on the eve of a federal election that the PM is largely expected to lose. Meanwhile, 'new media' is being put to good use at Opposition leader Kevin Rudd's website, Kevin07, where a recent blog entry compiles Youtube's 'best' political videos. Hours of fun for the whole family!

Reagan tops Lincoln

papoon — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 05:56:52 -0800

A poll that the GOP is actually winning Reagan?! What is happening to The Atlantic?

Introducing Pollster.com

kirkaracha — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 10:19:17 -0800

Introducing Pollster.com. PoliticalArithmetik and the Mystery Pollster combine to form Pollster.com (about; FAQ; guide to charts and data). The site features nifty charts and graphs of state-by-state senatorial and gubernatorial races. [more inside; via]

Handicapping the midterms

beagle — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 09:54:46 -0800

As in the 2004 elections, several useful sites have sprung up to keep track of the 2006 midterms for House, Senate and state gubernatorial races. Some have a political point of view, others don't, but they don't differ significantly on the outcome at this point. One of the veterans in this game is ElectionProjection.com, which was pretty close to actual results in '04. (A creation of "the Blogging Caesar"). From the right, there's MyElectionAnalysis.com, while ElectionPredictions seems to come from a neutral corner. All of these track statewide polls as they are published; they may differ in how they weight results. For a more subjective approach, see Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball or the Cook Political Report. Overall, the consensus seems to be that the GOP will hold both houses, but with slimmer margins, and lose on the gubernatorial front.

Win is irreversible, says ruling party's candidate

amberglow — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 22:43:16 -0800

Mexico's election: now being recounted, but some are saying it was stolen with our help. Many countries in Latin and South America have been moving to the left lately, following in the footsteps of Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia and Chile. Argentina actually caught us messing with things during their election, too. Exit polls in Mexico (as in Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004) showed a lead for the more leftist (relatively) candidate, and for those who scoff at using exit polls as evidence--in 2004, US Republican Senator Richard Lugar, in Kiev, cited the divergence of exit polls and official polls as solid evidence of “blatant fraud” in the vote count in Ukraine. As a result, the Bush Administration refused to recognize the Ukraine government’s official vote tally. So, honest election, or what?

So at least he's doing better than Mondale did...

jonson — Fri, 19 May 2006 00:32:29 -0800

updated red state/blue state map of America with recent poll results in place. Bush still (alarmingly) holding down Utah, Idaho & Wyoming, otherwise, not so great...

This is "Anyone but Bush" Country!

insomnia_lj — Tue, 16 May 2006 09:40:31 -0800

Bush out of favor in 47 out of 50 states. The SurveyUSA 50-state-poll shows some interesting details on Bush's approval rating, which has fallen to just 35% in North (and South) Carolina, 29% in Missouri, and 42% in Texas. He remains popular in only three states: Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. Could the Democrats have a shot even in Utah in the not-too-distant future? A lot of Utahns think so.

Nobody Loves You When You're Godless And Out

maryh — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 14:02:15 -0800

A recent poll ranks atheists as America's most distrusted minority. Despite some inroads into American's acceptance of religious diversity, distrust of the godless appears to have held steady. Should atheists evangelize, or perhaps follow in the footsteps of certain Christian fundamentalists and seek an Atheist Homeland? The sticks and stones seem endless, after all. via

It's the Chronic - what? - Polls of Zobgy!

DragonBoy — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 08:43:08 -0800

Nearly Half of Americans want to let states legally regulate and tax marijuana the way they do liquor and gambling.
Zogby International will pimp there services to just about anyone these days, including NORML for a poll on American's attitudes towards pot. According to the poll 65% of 18-29 year olds and 50% of 50-64 year-olds are cool with weed being legal and controlled like booze. The former slackers of Generation X, 30-49 year-olds, oppose it by 58% and the geezers over 65 oppose it by only 52%.

The pool shows some interesting generational attitudes. Is the 30-49 age group still following Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" mantra or is this the attitude of parents worried about their kids? I thought these folks were supposed to be the slacker generation, and now they're the strongest opponents to legalization.

Happiness poll results are in

mr_crash_davis — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 09:21:28 -0800

The happiness poll results are in and to no one's surprise, rich people are happier than poor people. Also, Republicans are happier than Democrats.

You've lost the troops, sir.

caddis — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 12:15:52 -0800

US Troop poll results in: 72% of American troops serving in Iraq think the U.S. should exit the country within the next year, and nearly one in four say the troops should leave immediately. In other news, 58% of Americans think the troops should stay. Back to the troops: 85% said the U.S. mission is mainly “to retaliate for Saddam’s role in the 9-11 attacks,” 77% said they also believe the main or a major reason for the war was “to stop Saddam from protecting al Qaeda in Iraq.”

Greatest Americans

Secret Life of Gravy — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 18:53:24 -0800

The 100 Greatest Americans ? This Sunday night at 8:00, the Discovery Channel will begin a seven hour series that starts with the top 100 Americans nominated by an on-line poll and culminates in real-time election- style voting, as America selects one person to be named the "Greatest American." Dr. Phil vs. Oprah, Barbara Bush vs. Laura Bush, and Jacko vs. Madonna. Can you feel the excitement?

But what about Clerks, Mallrats???

PrincessLara — Fri, 27 May 2005 16:48:48 -0800

Time Mag's 100 All Time Best Flicks Compiled by their OWN critics, of course. Hence no Kevin Smith masterpieces mentioned. The List also fails to mention some of the most popular movies of all time. It can't be right if it doesn't include the Wizard of Oz.

New Poll: Public Would Significantly Alter Administration's Budget

y2karl — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 12:53:11 -0800

A new poll finds that the American public would significantly alter the Bush administration’s recently proposed federal budget. Presented a breakdown of the major areas of the proposed discretionary budget and given the opportunity to redistribute it, respondents made major changes. The most dramatic changes were deep cuts in defense spending, a significant reallocation toward deficit reduction, and increases in spending on education, job training, reducing reliance on oil, and veterans. These changes were favored by both Republicans and Democrats, though the changes were generally greater for Democrats.
What America Gets Right (pdf) via The Gadflyer

Iraq-raq-on!

furtive — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 10:13:36 -0800

As Iraqis go to the polls on Jan. 30, it will be a daunting first exercise in democracy.