Looking at polls with one eye closed

[Chewbacca]

Sheesh, talk about selecting only the figures that make you look good and twisting them to make you look even better.


Article

In the past weeks top Bush administration officials have cited a pair of public opinion polls to demonstrate that Iraqis have a positive view of the U.S. occupation. But an examination of those polls indicates that Iraqis have a less enthusiastic view than the administration has portrayed. For example, in testimony before Congress, L. Paul Bremer III, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolf- owitz both cited a recent Gallup Poll that found that almost two-thirds of those polled in Baghdad said it was worth the hardships suffered since the U.S.-led invasion ousted Saddam Hussein. Bremer also told Congress that 67 percent thought that in five years they would be better off, while only 11 percent thought they would be worse off. That same poll, however, found that, countrywide, only 33 percent thought they were better off than they were before the invasion, and 47 percent said they were worse off. And 94 percent said Baghdad was a more dangerous place for them to live, a finding the administration officials did not discuss. The poll found that 29 percent of Baghdad residents had a favorable view of the United States, while 44 percent had a negative view. By comparison, 55 percent had a favorable view of France. Similarly, half of Baghdad residents had a negative view of President George W. Bush, while 29 percent had a favorable view of him. French President Jacques Chirac drew a 42 percent favorable rating. On Sept. 14 Vice President Dick Cheney, appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," discussed findings from a Zogby International poll of 600 Iraqis done in August in conjunction with American Enterprise magazine. He described the poll as "carefully done" and said it found "very positive news in it in terms of the numbers it shows with respect to the attitudes to what Americans have done." "The U.S. wins hands down," Cheney said, when Iraqis were asked what model of government they would prefer among five choices. Cheney's information, according to an aide, came from the American Enterprise essay on the poll that said 37 percent of respondents chose the United States, while 28 percent selected Saudi Arabia. But a look at the raw data from the poll on the magazine's Web site revealed different figures: Only 21.5 percent chose the United States, while 20 percent refused to select any model, and 16 percent selected the Saudi government.