The Problem With Polling Health Care Reform

Worth Clicking: Blasts from the past wound Romney

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October 15, 2009

The Problem With Polling Health Care Reform

The next time you see a poll claiming Americans want or don't want a public option in a health care reform bill, don't take it too seriously.

A new Pew Research survey finds that just 56% of Americans even know that the "public option" is part of the debate over health care reform. A third of the public (33%) does not know what policy area discussion of a "public option" refers to, and 11% guessed incorrectly.

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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October 15, 2009