After the Bin Laden op, what is the impact? Not on terrorism. Merged thread

[Ken White]

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...

When there is context things are different.

Not much.

[Steve Blair]

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...

And don't forget that this great sample was composed of 1000 people. So the opinion passed off as coming from "the flew-over masses" is in fact only 1000 of those flown over, and there's no real definition of just where that small sample actually lives (or when they were called...I suspect that 1000 folks who were watching Jerry Springer in the morning might have a different perspective than 1000 folks who happened to be watching CNN/Fox talking heads in the evening).

Sorry...but I'm not a big fan of polls. The pollsters (who have a vested interest in appearing as Oracle-like as possible) are too reluctant to reveal things like refusal rates, sample locations, and so on. Cute for sound-bites, but fairly meaningless otherwise.