View Single Post
(#14 (permalink))
Old
MMM's Avatar
MMM (Offline)
JF Ossan
 
Posts: 12,200
Join Date: Jun 2007
02-15-2011, 06:18 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by RealJames View Post
Although, in the same way that you can take a sampling of a population on any survey and use that to represent the whole within a certain margin of error, elections can be the same. In fact most surveys have so many fewer counts than elections.
So it's relatively safe to say that the remaining 63% of Americans might have voted along similar lines as the first 37% and 47% plus or minus a few percent of them would have also voted for Bush.

In this case it would seem like Bush shouldn't have won, so it's not accurate to say that most of America supported him, perhaps "nearly half" would be better, but how about the 2004 elections?
But an election is not a survey. We cannot determine why those that choose not to vote choose not to vote. Maybe they didn't like any of the candidates... we don't know for sure, and surely there are many many reasons why.

Saddam Hussein won 100% of the vote in the 2002 election in Iraq. Do you conclude that 100% of the people in Iraq supported Saddam Hussein?

Anyway, my main point is I do not judge a body of people strictly on their leadership. I talk to people all around the world, and rarely are they really satisfied with what their government is doing. Maybe that is the one generalization we can make about humanity on the whole.
Reply With Quote