Jay Cost Explains Why Liberal Media Polls Keep Getting 55+% Support for the "Public Option:" The Feel-Good Phrasing of the Question

I thought this might be the case, but I didn't do my homework and look at all the various formulations the liberal media polling outfits employ to push-poll this to the public.

If you use the Democrats' focus-group-tested buzzwords in the question -- "compete," "option," "choose" -- you get support.

As Kellyanne Fitzpatrick remarks, this is no surprise:

Asking an under-informed public in a poll about "public option" is incomplete. It calls for a response to feel-good phraseology rather than a probing of underlying ideology. "Public option" in health care is not so different from "campaign finance reform," "Violence Against Women's Act," "revenue enhancements" or for that matter, "world peace' and "no rain this Saturday."

Rasmussen asks the question two ways. First, they use the liberal media's Democrat focus-group-tested terminology, and they get results congruent with the liberal media's polls.

Then they ask a follow-up:

Suppose that the creation of a government-sponsored non-profit health insurance option encouraged companies to drop private health insurance coverage for their workers. Workers would then be covered by the government option. Would you favor or oppose the creation of a government-sponsored non-profit health insurance option if it encouraged companies to drop private health insurance coverage for their workers?

Result? Nearly 60% disapproval.

posted by Ace at 11:20 AM

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