Hannity FAILs at understanding how polls work

Recently, the Washington Post held a poll that showed a 57% of responders being for a public option as part of health care reform, with some 40% against it. It’s uncertain as to whether these numbers are reliable or not, but in any case, they do sound encouraging. Like Americans are finally waking up and smelling the bullshit and demagoguery being spread around by the right-wingers and kooks.

But, Sean Hannity isn’t happy about this poll. And, in attacking it, he further reveals, once again, that he has no idea what he’s talking about:

With the exception of Fox News, the other networks, they're receiving gold stars on their White House report cards, and the latest case in point is the Washington Post/ABC News poll that shows that 57% of Americans support a government health care takeover and only 40% oppose it.

Now a closer look at that poll explains why. Now get this: They polled 13% more Democrats than Republicans. Now that explains a few things.

Let’s ignore his silly comment on a government takeover of healthcare when it’s merely concerning a public option (which, in the new proposed healthcare reform bill, states can even opt out of) and focus on the meat of his argument. He claims that the results are skewed because 13% more Democrats were polled for these results. What twit Hannity doesn’t get, is that this is actually a sign that the poll is accurate and was conducted according to the rules, for the simple reason that there are roughly 13% more self-proclaimed Democrats than self-proclaimed Republicans in America. Idiot.

The poll would’ve been skewed had there not been a higher percentage of polled Democrats in its test group. Which shows us all, again, that Hannity really needs to shut off his fake outrage machine and to actually get a clue.

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)
Technorati tags: Sean Hannity · polls · Democrats · Republicans · healthcare reform · public option