Wow. What a ride. The polling project is almost finished. Only a few releases remain, including getting the cross-tabs and all of the files online. Also, Joel will have more later on
The Terrorism Threat Index soon.
What have we learned from our poll? A lot:
- In our first release, we learned that accurate public polling is not the sole province of campaigns and commercial news organizations.
- In our second release, we learned that Democrats were more worried about terrorism than Republicans.
- In our third release, we learned that few Americans were following the advice of the department of homeland security.
- In our fourth release, we learned why Americans support and oppose the war in Iraq.
- In our fifth release, we learned that Murtha's troop deployment plan in incredibly popular. We also learned that it is about the only idea nationwide where partisanship does not have an impact on its support.
- In our sixth release, we learned that Republicans don't care whether or not Bush breaks the law.
- In our seventh release, we learned that fear pushes the country to the right.
This was an amazing, month-long process, and it all came from the community. First,
we asked you if you wanted us to run a poll, and in our most heavily voted upon poll every, nearly 4,000 of you said yes. Next,
we asked for your input on what questions we should ask, and over three threads (
here,
here,
here), you gave us more than 100 suggestions. After that,
we joined forces with Start Change, and
hired a pollster, Joel Wright. We then
finished up the questionnaire, and
put the poll in the field. You guys have helped us out to the tune of nearly $17,000. We made our
methodology public.
Mystery Pollster nodded approvingly. The above results show the fruits of our labor.
This was an exhaustive process, and a lot of "Thank You's" are in order.
First, I'd like to thank the more than 100 commenters who helped us form the questions. I hope it is clear that your suggestions made a huge impact.
I'd like to give a big thank you to all 414 doors to the poll. We will be sending you the complete cross-tabs over email soon. You guys are the ones who made this happen. It is amazing that you guys managed to raise nearly $17K for this. Thank you!
I'd also like to thank Matt Stoller, who emptied out his saving to pay for the poll. The check we sent came entirely from him. The money you guys raised wasn't available until the end of January. Only now has Matt been reimbursed. His enthusiasm for this project made it possible for me to fulfill a long-time dream of my own.
I would also like to thank
Start Change,
Crooks and Liars,
Digby,
Fire Dog Lake and a couple
Dailykos diarists for helping us out with donation links. This wouldn't have been possible without them.
I would also like to thank everyone listed above for helping us promote the poll, as well as
Atrios,
Talking Points Memo,
kos,
Peter Daou, Jonathan Singer, Scott Shields,
Mystery Pollster,
US Newswire, and
National Journal. I'm sure there were a bunch more people who linked to us, and I wish I could thank them all personally. Over 250,000 people have seen the results of this poll, and there is no way we could have done that on our own. Thank you everyone!
I would also like to thank Jerome Armstrong, who first told me about Joel Wright, and who started my career as a blogger.
Finally, I would like to thank
Joel Wright and Joel Wright Consulting Services. His seemingly endless enthusiasm for our project was remarkable. He completely believed in what we were doing, and did everything he could to make the poll as accurate as possible. Throughout the whole thing, he kept telling me how we were going to shake everything up with this poll. I think he was right. A lot will change because of this poll, and along with everyone else I have listed, he made it possible.
And now, I have one final question for all of you. Do you want to do this again? There are more barriers to cross, more ground to cover, and even trendlines to be built. Shall we do thing again, perhaps in the spring? Take the poll in the comments.
