Political Poll Shows Congress Less Popular Than Lice and Nickleback

[Tarkenfire]

(This is probably a "Serious talk" thread, but I don't have access there, so meh ._.)

Found this interesting blog post about a recent survey that shows that Americans view a lot of stuff more positively than the US Congress.

Interesting things that congress was less popular than include musical abortion Nickelback, the blood-sucking insect Lice, and Genghis Khan.

Interesting things that congress was MORE popular than include the Ebola virus, the Lindsey Lohan virus, and Fidel Castro.

Here's the post where I found it:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-con...ss-153656.html

I mean, I know a lot of yalls aren't American, but even then, you probably have some opinion of US Congress; I have opinions on the British Parliament, Japanese Diet, and Russian Duma. They aren't well informed, but opinions nonetheless. So I'd still like to hear opinions from yall.

Edit: Also, yeah, I know, the poll isn't that accurate, with only 880 samples, but I still like the idea nonetheless.

[dinochan]

You would probably find simalar resultes no matter how many people you survay.

[Tarkenfire]

Probably. Ebola might get a bit of a bump. But, calling 880 a good sample size out of 42 million Americans, with at least 3/4 of them being of a relevant age, isn't really something I can say seriously.

[sunnyside]

The US Congress is made up of two parts (The House and Senate), and both sides have to agree to accomplish stuff. They are controlled by different parties, which makes for a lot of gridlock and most everybody will dislike either the House or the Senate.

The members are also a product of the increasing American polarization where, thanks to the internet and cable news, people can wrap themselves in a warm glowing cocoon of media that tells them they're right about everything and the other side is PURE EVIL. Members of either side in congress that play nice with the other side tend not to get re-elected, so, well, guess who is left?

[nrL]

Who cares?

[Eris]

Probably. Ebola might get a bit of a bump. But, calling 880 a good sample size out of 42 million Americans, with at least 3/4 of them being of a relevant age, isn't really something I can say seriously.

As long as the 880 are randomly selected, it should be more than sufficient.

[Tarkenfire]

As long as the 880 are randomly selected, it should be more than sufficient.

It's been a LONG while since I took statistics, and I don't really remember "best practices" for sampling. For a sample size between 30-42 million, I would think a more appropriate sample size would be in the 1000-2000 range.

[sunnyside]

As long as the 880 are randomly selected, it should be more than sufficient.

Well obviously this is mostly just a bit of silly fun. But their method was "automated telephone interviews" so as with many polls these days the situation is probably something like:

http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2008-12-10

[Tarkenfire]

Well obviously this is mostly just a bit of silly fun. But their method was "automated telephone interviews" so as with many polls these days the situation is probably something like:

http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2008-12-10

Well, considering the current political makeup of the US, the old, needlessly angry, and incompetent would make up a good, if depressing, cross-section of actively political people in the US. >_>

[Ranshiin]

Interesting things that congress was less popular than include musical abortion Nickelback, the blood-sucking insect Lice, and Genghis Khan.

You have no idea how much just that one part made me smile. Just totally made my night - and likely my tomorrow-morning, too. Thank you.

[Tarkenfire]

You have no idea how much just that one part made me smile. Just totally made my night - and likely my tomorrow-morning, too. Thank you.

Don't even hate their songs that much. It's mostly a result of five years of my..."friends" doing their best gravely voiced "LOOoooooOIOk aaaaat thiis pho-to-graph" every time I saw anything even remotely resembling the Polaroid pictures that no one actually has anymore.