Griper Blade: Who Has to Make Concessions to Who?

I have a love/hate relationship with posts about polls. It's nice to have factual data to work with, but it always feels a little lazy. After all, polling measures public opinion, so to a certain extent, it's kind of like informing people of things they already know. Still, polling has become so central to our news culture that it's almost impossible to avoid. Sooner or later, polling is going to be a story worth talking about.

One poll that's getting some comment around the net is a Quinnipiac University poll on just about everything.

American voters oppose 47 - 40 percent President Barack Obama's health care reform plan, and don't want an overhaul that only gets Democratic votes, but they support key parts of the plan, including 61 - 34 percent for giving people the option of a government health insurance plan that competes with private plans, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today.

By a 57 - 37 percent margin, voters say Congress should not approve a health care overhaul with only Democratic votes. Democrats are OK with a one-party bill 63 - 29 percent, but opposition is 88 - 9 percent from Republicans and 62 - 32 percent from independent voters.

President Obama's job approval is 50 - 41 percent, virtually unchanged from his 50 - 42 percent rating August 6, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University survey of 2,630 American voters finds. The President's 41 - 51 percent negative rating on health care is barely changed from his 39 - 52 percent rating August 5. His 47 - 46 percent score on handling the economy is slightly better than a 45 - 49 percent negative in August.

Like I said, factual data. That X% of respondents answered a question a certain way is undoubtedly factual, but it pays to take a look at what the question actually was... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]