Poll makes questions easy

In an opinion survey by Moore Information of Portland, commissioned by the Retail Association of Nevada, the following questions were asked:

• “Do you think that the Nevada school system needs significant reforms in order to improve results?”

• “Do you think that the Nevada school system can be improved through increased spending?”

By gosh, respondents voted 70 percent for “reforms” to 18 percent for “increased spending.”

“Reforms” were never defined in pollster questions. It may have meant a return of corporal punishment or switching from 20th to 21st century textbooks—who knows? Respondents had no idea what it meant.

Nor was the purpose of “increased spending” ever explained. Maybe it was for repairing leaking ceilings or for free cola in the cafeteria. That information was never given to respondents. They were just responding to buzzwords.

The poll also tilted questions on the new national health care program by using the loaded and colloquial term “Obamacare” in its language instead of “Affordable Care Act” or some generic term like “new federal health care program.” The questions began, “Do you believe that the Obamacare law will …”

Obamacare has been used as a pejorative term by Republicans. Some Democrats, including Obama, have also used the term, not always comfortably.