Stimulus is popular, however you ask.

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By Mark Blumenthal

Last week our colleague David Moore highlighted some contradictory results on the issue of the proposed economic stimulus program to illustrate, as he put it, "how easy it is for pollsters to manipulate public opinion into something different from what it really is." He pointed out that a question asked by Gallup produced just 11% with no opinion, while a similar question posed by the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll produced 30% in that category when it prompted respondents to say when they "do not have an opinion either way."

David is nothing if not provocative, and he comes to his opinions from a long career in the field of survey research. For those reasons we are glad he has become a regular contributor. I also agree with him that pollsters too rarely report probes of overall awareness of specific proposals, or conversely, the reluctance of respondents to offer an opinion when asked questions about complex public policy issues. More often than not, issue questions on media polls measure the way the public reacts to the information presented rather than a pre-existing opinion on the proposal being discussed. That habit, as Moore argues, tends to exaggerate our sense of the public's engagement in matters of public policy. But I part company with David when he implies a nefarious intent, arguing that pollsters "are generally not interested in realistic measures of public opinion," and choose instead to deliberately "create" or "manipulate" public opinion.

By way of explanation, consider all of the questions asked over the last few weeks that attempt to gauge support for the proposed economic stimulus legislation. I have ranked the table below on the percentage expressing support (all are from January, follow the links for details on specific dates, sample sizes and reported margins of error).

Chart.