We appreciate Vandy’s pollsters taking the time to defend themselves from criticism by Beacon and others about the veracity of their poll in a Tennessean op-ed that ran yesterday. While their lengthy article about the importance of public opinion and methodology and so on and so on are great, they blatantly ignored the only real criticism we levied: the wording of their Insure Tennessee question (which, as a reminder, Vandy refused to release to the public until we called them out on it). So what if they got a panel of Republicans and Democrats to review the question? That panel did a shoddy job.
This:
Do you strongly support, somewhat support, neither support nor oppose, somewhat oppose or strongly oppose expanding health care coverage for low-income people in the state?
Is not the same as this:
Do you strongly support, somewhat support, neither support nor oppose, somewhat oppose or strongly oppose expanding Medicaid, government-run and taxpayer-funded health insurance coverage, for low-income people in the state?
As we mentioned in our initial blog post, our entire team would have answered “support” to the original question. We’re shocked only 64% of Tennesseans did. But the lack of any mention of Medicaid or even that the expansion population will be covered using taxpayer money means the poll’s not worth the paper it was printed on. Until Vandy’s pollsters address that, their poll results are still flawed, and they remain more interested in shaping—rather than gauging—public opinion.