Why do these dumb online polls matter? They can take any number of votes from the same dumb person who repeatedly dumps their cookies. It's nonsense.
BUT....
Sometimes they lead to headlines like this:
Debate Swirled Over Obama Speech.
61% think his idea is inapproprate.
What idea? I believe the part where Obama asks kids to "write to the president about goals for education" Of course it's been clarified to mean their PERSONAL goals about their education, but whatever. Why would 61% think it's inappropriate?
Because they don't. It's the same 2000 idiots voting over and over. And in a vacuum it doesn't matter. Instead, the AOL main window blasts this headline and it just riles up the uninformed to think there really is a bad deal out there if, O.M.G, 61% think its inappropriate.
There was some interesting stuff in the article that accompanied this headline: Obama School Speech Controversy
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, said in an interview with the AP that he's "certainly not going to advise anybody not to send their kids to school that day."
Really, you're not going to suggest they secede?
"Hearing the president speak is always a memorable moment," he said.
Surprisingly, nice to hear. I'm just going to accept it at face value.
But he also said he understood where the criticism was coming from.
"Nobody seems to know what he's going to be talking about," Perry said. "Why didn't he spend more time talking to the local districts and superintendents, at least give them a heads-up about it?"
Um, Pssst. Perry buddy, it's online. Even still, they told you what it was about. That's called a heads up.
So yeah, the strange headline did make me look at this article. I'm going to pay a little more attention to these stupid "Freep this poll" nonsense, even though I'll be hating it every step of the way.
UPDATE: I see that the "inappropriate idea" was the entire speech itself. Wow. 61%. That makes it even more outrageous and an obvious skew.