Bailout polls are not contradictory. Some questions are just hopelessly bad

[bluecatz]

Some have noted that polls on public sentiment on the "bailout" to Wall Street companies have yielded very different results. But this is more simple than you think. It's all in the phrasing and in whether or not pollsters are being transparent with their respondents.

Today Rasmussen asks specifically whether the people support "the proposed $700-billion taxpayer-backed Wall Street rescue plan." Note how Rasmussen confines its question to one specific proposal, with a specific amount (good). This question resulted in an anemic 24% support for the plan.

USA Today/Gallup similarly found that "78% of Americans want a bailout but most want significant changes." The headline says it all. the wording resulted in an outcome very similar to that of Rasmussen. Just 22% "want lawmakers to approve a plan similar to Bush's proposal to allow the Treasury Department to buy up to $700 billion in distressed assets from financial institutions."

A very telling passage from the poll follows: "Sixty-three percent of respondents say it's "very important" to limit the pay of executives whose firms benefit from the plan. And nearly half of those polled say it's very important to help homeowners who can't pay their mortgages."

Pew's wording was simply atrocious, as they left respondents in the dark as to how much money the Bush-backed proposal would inject into Wall Street: "As you may know, the government is potentially investing billions to try and keep financial institutions and markets secure. Do you think this is the right thing or the wrong thing for the government to do?"
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/963/wall-street-bailout-approval

Yeah, billions...but how many? 2 billion? 20 billion? 700 billion? It is likely that the obscure wording played no small part in the outcome: 57% said the government plan is the "right thing to do".

The CBS/NY Times poll found that 42% approved of the government's "plan to provide money" to financial institutions. That is vague, but still, when a separate question isolated the "$700 billion of government funds" to financial service companies, only 16% saw it as a good idea, as opposed to 38% who rejected the plan. 42% didn't know enough. Note that the range is consistent, ranging from 16% to 24% so far as the question contains dollar amounts.
http://pollingreport.com/business.htm

It's important to note that populist economist Paul Krugman believes a bailout is necessary as long as concessions are made to main street along with Wall Street, and seems to be more open to the alternative $250 million alternative which limits executive pay and requires "equity sharing."

THAT is what I'm talking about.

[FreakinDJ]

1. The DEMs better listen

[sandnsea]

2. Much of this has already been agreed to

Which is why it's damn annoying for people to keep pretending we're still talking about Paulson's original plan, we're not.

[stillcool]

3. I can't imagine that many of those polled..

are that much more aware than I am of what this all actually means. It would be wonderful if someone would actually inform us before they poll us.