Keep trying to pretend this is "biased" tho.

A poll can't be biased. It's an accurate depiction of who they polled. I'm saying the sample is non-scientific, as even the economic admits up front. Why can't you?

There are big enough holes in this poll where its just enough to make it a non-issue.

1) The poll was non-scientific. They sent out a survey to a couple thousand people and it was up to the person to participate.

2) To further skew the polling data, they sent it out to NBER members - which is a respected organization, sure, but based in academia nonetheless. And academia is leftist, also as the economist points out in its own article.

3) For instance, out of 141 respondents, just fourteen replied that identified themselves as a republican. 14. 10%.

National Party ID (as tracked by Rasmussen) is 34% Republican, 38% Democrat, and 27% independent..

This compares with, in this sample, 10% Republican, 45% Democrat, and 45% independent.

Now imagine if this sample was applied to real life.

-Democrats would have 4.5x as many voters as republicans.
-Independents would have 4.5x as many voters as registered republicans (splitting even, it'd mean democrats would win elections by 70/30 - when's the last time that happened?)

If you defend this sample you haven't passed 4th grade math.

Triple's now a social science methodology expert.

(he's really freaking out, you can tell, but heaven forbid he stop and wonder WHY economists favor obama)

The independent economists favored Obama at 71%.

MOST OF THE REPUBLICAN ECONOMISTS FAVORED OBAMA

It's an unscientific poll. There is no methodology.

From your thread title:

The Economist's poll of economists

From the economist's actual article:

"Our survey is not, by any means, a scientific poll of all economists."

Who's not in touch with reality?

Why would I be "freaking out".. democrats wildly support obama over mccain. In other news, the sky is blue, the stove is hot, and david blaine is a douchebag.

This? This is a jar of Karl Rove's semen. I am going to smear it all over my ugly fat face. And there is nothing you can do about it. This is AMerica *****. Pear me the details of how you libs going to throw a hissy fit tantrum over it. I give no **** (about Big Gov). Constitution, all them numbers in it.

Originally Posted by triple

It's an unscientific poll. There is no methodology.

Wow, now you're just showing how stupid you really are....

It's unscientific because they had no stratified sampling and thus it was merely an open survey of economists. However, that most certainly is a METHODOLOGY. This is why they differentiated the responses based on party affiliation:

• 71% of independents favored Obama over Mccain.
  
• Republicans favored Obama over Mccain.

Even if you remove the ****ing democrats, Obama wins... moron.

Obama's policy of taxing the **** out of the rich is retarded.

other than that, its aight.

TseTse, you're not even acknowledging almost everyone who took that poll works on a college campus. They aren't the most conservative bastions over there, even the republicans.

Originally Posted by The Economist

This skewed party breakdown may reflect academia***8217;s Democratic tilt

When im quoting from your own article to prove you wrong, you know you've ****ed up.

Originally Posted by SPNirology

Obama's policy of taxing the **** out of the rich is retarded.

other than that, its aight.

When I read comments like this its quite clear people don't have any historical context when it comes to taxes.

Obama's proposed tax levels are not even remotely close to 'taxing the **** out of the rich'.

Originally Posted by SPNirology

Obama's policy of taxing the **** out of the rich is retarded.

That's not his policy.

He's returning taxation on the top 1% to REAGAN ERA levels, effectively undoing the Bush tax cuts THAT MCCAIN HIMSELF CRITICIZED. "I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us at the expense of middle-class Americans who most need tax relief" - John Mccain

And today... he's proposing to EXPAND this same trickle-down rich approach, while Obama is slicing taxes MORE for MOST americans. The vast majority of americans get bigger tax breaks under Obama than Mccain. Not only that, but Mccain's proposal digs $4.6 trillion into more debt.

# Republicans favored Obama over Mccain.

Do you know how many republicans actually responded?

Fourteen.

So you're taking the statistical word of fourteen republicans as proof that most republican economists support obama's plan.

Fourteen people.

My god you're ****ing facepalm-worthy stupid.

This isn't even up to the level of a web poll, its more of a man-on-the-street thing at this point.

Originally Posted by triple

When im quoting from your own article to prove you wrong, you know you've ****ed up.

Once in a while i just ask myself... is Triple really truly this stupid?

EVEN IF YOU REMOVED THE DEMOCRATS FROM THE POLL, OBAMA WINS IT.



Sure, you can whine about the low response rates of the GOPrs but they responded and a ton of independents responded. Even if you remove the Dems... Obama wins. Whine away.

If you take the democrats out of the poll the number of respondents could fit in my kitchen, making any poll statistically irrelevant.

You're not going to discern the opinions of economists, you're going to discern the opinions of a dozen people.

(PS: Larger text doesn't make up for your smaller brain.)

Originally Posted by triple

If you take the democrats out of the poll the number of respondents could fit in my kitchen

Triple's kitchen can fit his HEAD + 76 trained applied economists.

"...no fewer than 71% of those who do not cleave to either main party say Mr Obama has a better grasp of economics..."


You see, triple, you and your arguments are very predictable... and you have nothing when it comes to trying to attack the INDEPENDENT economists. You've already used up your silly "but they are academics and thus part of the DNC" argument.

the council on foreign relations has a nice write up on both Obama and McCains advisory staff and i must say, Obama went out and got some of teh big league involved. Foreign Policy Brain Trusts: Obama***039;s Advisers - Council on Foreign Relations

McCain blew it IMO by going against the will of the people and stacked his staff with a lot of neo-cons. Foreign Policy Brain Trusts: McCain Advisers - Council on Foreign Relations

the cool thing about these articles is you can search the names of the individuals and read additional papers written by them to get a better feel for who they are.

while i am no fan of either Obama or McCain, i gotta give credit where credit is due. Obama did his homework.

Dear Triple,

If your kitchen was filled with Republican economists who said Obama knows what he's doing better than Mccain...

Do you:

A) kill them

B) burn your house down

C) yell at them and tell them they are ****ing stupid

D) pretend they arent there and feed the cats

E) curl up and cry

Academic economists usually swing rightish/libertarian fiscally, even if they're much more left leaning than their business colleagues and tend to vote D.

The poll isn't surprising, since McCain changed his mind about four times in the span of three weeks on the status of the bailout and the financial crisis. Moreover his team members are not the traditional academics like Obama's group (Obama's economic team is very centrist and has some brilliant right leaning economists) and McCain has been critical of economists in the past, so that doesn't do him great favors.

Traditionally, the R wins these sorts of polls, but when you act like a cretin, well thats what happens.

the great thing is after 4 years of recession a republican will be back in the white house

So of 14 (R) econs, 6 favor Obama, 3 favor McCain, and 5 think they're both clowns? Yeah, that looks statistically significant.

Not saying the poll is without merit, just that the "but most repubs favored obama!!!!!111!!" argument is pretty weak. You can do better than that against triple.

Indeed, 71% of the independent ones support Obama over Mccain.

I was just waiting for him to finally read it and realize there was a small GOP sample. Took 2 pages.