1 Attachment(s)
"After Obama" will be ...
either 2013 or 2017. My crystal ball ain't accurate enough for either year - sorry :D
Rasmussen has been doing a series of pollings which now has boiled down to, Americans Are Reluctant to Defend Any of These Allies (Wednesday, April 27, 2011). Here is a summary graphic of the results:
Attachment 1459
I can't come up with any consistent rationale which might explain these results.
The real crossover point (40-40-20) is Denmark; but Japan (43-44-13) gets the first heaveho in the chart.
Anyone ?
Astan = 30-54-16 - not a surprise to me.
Regards
Mike
These assertions don't hold water
Quote:
from Carl
If you polled Americans in 1800, 1850, 1900, 1950, 2000 or any year you'd care to choose the results would be the same
Prove it by polls from 1800, 1850, 1900, 1950, 2000 or any year you'd care to choose. Obvious hyperbole.
Quote:
from Carl
The question has no context so most people will default to "none of my business" unless they've heard of the place or been there.
The question does have context as polls go:
Quote:
National Survey of 1,000 Adults
Conducted April 22-23, 2011, 2011
By Rasmussen Reports
1* Sometimes, when a country is attacked, the United States provides military assistance to help defend that country. Now, I’m going to read you a short list of countries. For each, please tell me if the United States should offer military assistance to defend that country if it is attacked?
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
Chile
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Peru
Portugal
Thailand
NOTE: Margin of Sampling Error, +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence
Some of the apparent inconsistency in the results may well be due to people not knowing spit about geography. I do buy that as a factor. Moreover, based on many prior polls (Rasmussen and others), what one could call the "foreign policy elite" (CFR, etc.) are much more interventionistic than the flew-over masses.
BTW: what context would you add to the poll question to make it "meaningful" ?
Regards
Mike
Most Polls are somewhat meaningless.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
carl
I think the poll is largely meaningless. If you polled Americans in 1800, 1850, 1900, 1950, 2000 or any year you'd care to choose the results would be the same. The question has no context so most people will default to "none of my business" unless they've heard of the place or been there. How else can you explain such little regard for New Zealand.
Aside from the fact that some of those nations didn't exist in most of the earlier years cited, results would likely differ for Great Britain in 1800, Canada in 1850, Germany in 1900 (much less in 1917 or 1944, two years one might name...;) ). As for New Zealand, it's simply a function of location. For the bulk of nations, the responses are about about the anglosphere and western solidarity plus historic ties. As is true of any poll, it's a snapshot, answered by some people while others like me just hang up the phone when the Pollsters call...
Quote:
When there is context things are different.
Not much. :D