The Biden Presidency is underway.

[Alstein]

Ed Case is prob one of the most right-wing Dems out there, looking at the Caucuses he is part of. Is Hawaii not that deep in its blueness with folks like Case and Gabbard being representatives?

[CraigM]

Up until last election my rep was one of the worst Dems, Dan Lipinski. Despite being a deep blue district in the Chicago suburbs.

[Strollen]

@Alstein

Ed Case is prob one of the most right-wing Dems out there, looking at the Caucuses he is part of. Is Hawaii not that deep in its blueness with folks like Case and Gabbard being representatives?

So what?. Does that invalidate the survey? Sen. Brian Schatz is quite progressive. The District Ed represents i(Honolulu proper) ss more liberal than the other congressional district.

[scottagibson]

@Strollen

Do you support the $3.5 trillion social infrastructure package proposed by the President?

That kind of a loaded question, isn’t it? ‘Social’ infrastructure package?

[Strollen]

@scottagibson

That kind of a loaded question, isn’t it? ‘Social’ infrastructure package?

Really why? I’ve heard it referred to that way, also human infrastructure. What would you use?

[RichVR]

How about the fuck you we will get shit done regardless of you, you scumbag bastards bill?

[triggercut]

@Strollen

Really why? I’ve heard it referred to that way, also human infrastructure. What would you use?

Because that isn’t the way the rest of the House Democrats and the White House are describing it. That’s adjacent to Fox News terminology.

I write survey questions for a living. That is absolutely loading a question to bias a response.

[Strollen]

@triggercut

Because that isn’t the way the rest of the House Democrats and the White House are describing it. That’s adjacent to Fox News terminology.

I write survey questions for a living. That is absolutely loading a question to bias a response.

I know you do. So what is the non-biased way of phrasing the question?

[Timex]

@triggercut

Because that isn’t the way the rest of the House Democrats and the White House are describing it. That’s adjacent to Fox News terminology.

Eh, I’ve heard about it referred to that way by democrats, not Fox news people.

Edit:
Example

Biden’s new bill a ‘grab bag’ of social infrastructure

[scottagibson]

@Strollen

So what is the non-biased way of phrasing the question?

Drop the word ‘social’ and call it an infrastructure bill, like it is actually called?

@RichVR

How about the fuck you we will get shit done regardless of you, you scumbag bastards bill?

I will co-sponsor that bill.

[triggercut]

@Strollen

I know you do. So what is the non-biased way of phrasing the question?

When I was a kid, my stepdad took me car shopping. Mom needed a new car to get her back and forth to work, but mostly light driving otherwise. On the lot of one place, the salesman kept trying to show my stepdad all these big, 4-door sedans with 8 cylinder engines. My stepdad, who knew cars and had specific models in mind while shopping that also emphasized fuel efficiency, wanted to see different cars. The salesguy showed him a couple of others, and mentioned that these cars were fine…but only had 6-cylinder engines and not 8.

And my stepdad said “That just means there’s two more cylinders to have something go wrong with.”

That’s basically the philosophy for constructing questions for public surveys. Every word in a question has the potential to bias a response to varying degrees. Thus, the fewer words the better. If you can describe something with as few words as necessary, you’re in good shape.

So if we were workshopping this question, our goal would be: how do we separate the reconciliation bill from the bipartisan bill in a way that respondents would know which bill we were asking about, but not in a way that prejudices their response. And I imagine we’d land on “$3.5 trillion reconciliation bill” for that.

[triggercut]

Jake Sherman

[scottagibson]

Yup, house Democrats vote to pass the Big Infrastructure budget reconciliation bill. Not at all surprising!

All eyes are now on Sinema and Manchin.

[triggercut]

@scottagibson

Yup, house Democrats vote to pass the Big Infrastructure budget reconciliation bill. Not at all surprising!

All eyes are now on Sinema and Manchin.

Yep. Now it’s time to find out if there are ponies big enough to get their support.

[Papageno]

@triggercut

@scottagibson

Yup, house Democrats vote to pass the Big Infrastructure budget reconciliation bill. Not at all surprising!

All eyes are now on Sinema and Manchin.

Yep. Now it’s time to find out if there are ponies big enough to get their support.

Here’s where M and S decide whether they want Dems to be known for actually doing something that makes ordinary Americans’ lives better, or not.

[triggercut]

Susan Page

[KevinC]

I remember when I was a dummy and thought it was time for new blood in the Speaker position. I’m still a dummy, but I’m a dummy that thinks Nancy Pelosi is pretty damn good at her job and we really have needed that experience/leadership these past few years.

[scottagibson]

Manchin has made noises all along like someone who would accept some kind of a deal, but Sinema isn’t signaling the desire for anything.

[Dejin]

@KevinC

I remember when I was a dummy and thought it was time for new blood in the Speaker position. I’m still a dummy, but I’m a dummy that thinks Nancy Pelosi is pretty damn good at her job and we really have needed that experience/leadership these past few years.

Same. Now I’m dreading when she steps down.

[triggercut]

My moment of conversion to Pelosi was the fall of 2008 economic crash. So much opportunity for a fairly disparate caucus on economic matters to pull in a variety of directions, but Pelosi sensed that the smart stance to take would be to hold her caucus together and approve President Bush’s emergency relief plan.

And in the end, that was the smart play. Republicans split on approval of the emergency relief package and Democrats looked like the party who were taking things more seriously.