They had me at caller ID. The screen said, “Opinionology ,” but it was the location that made me pick up for what was obviously going to be some kind of a public opinion poll. “Orem, Utah.”

On the line was a woman who promised that she wasn’t selling anything or asking for money. [Promise kept.] Also, she promised, this would be a short opinion poll about current events in Missouri [where I live]. [Promise broken.]

Utah. Current events. I’m already salivating and scrambling to grab paper and pen.

After the prelims about my likeliness to vote, my absentee vs. in-person voting preference and my political leanings, we get down to bidness. My pollster was polite and patient [I stalled a lot and asked for questions to be repeated, because I wanted get it down in my notes.]  Here are the questions [in italics], plus my answers. Who do you think is paying for this poll, and how would you respond?

On a scale of 0 to 100 [0=least important, 100=most important], how would you rank the following issues? 

-Abortion and gay marriage. Not sure how to rank this issue. It’s the first issues question, and I’m already feeling the push from this poll. I think they want me to give it a high number, and I don’t want to give them the satisfaction. But I do, indeed, think abortion and gay marriage are important—as human rights issues—but I suspect that’s not what this pollster is looking for.] I take the middle ground: 50

-Pocketbook issues/ the cost of gas and housing. Same problem: 50

-Foreign policy/ War in Afghanistan and Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons: 75 [mostly because I want out of Afghanistan]

-Fiscal issues: cutting taxes and the deficit. This one is a political tipoff, so I give it a low number, which actually reflects my view on these issues. Taxes are the dues we pay for a civilized society. If you don’t like taxes, don’t call a cop: 10

On a scale of 1 to 10, which of the following candidates would you consider voting for?

-Obama: 10

-Romney: 0

-Ron Paul: [Interesting inclusion]: 0

If the November election were held today, which presidential candidate would you vote for? [Possibly/Likely/Definitely]: Obama/Definitely

If the November election were held today, which candidate for U.S. Senate would you vote for?  [Possibly/Likely/Definitely]: McCaskill/Definitely [They didn’t mention names. You had to come up with one yourself. I wonder how many Missouri voters, five weeks before the hotly contested Republican primary, can even name one of the candidates?]

What is your opinion of President Obama?

               I like him and his policies/I like him but dislike his policies/I dislike him and dislike his policies

How would you describe President Barack Obama, on a scale of 1 to 10?    

-President Obama can fix the economy: [Trick question. No President can fix the economy on his own, especially when Congress blocks every move he attempts to make. But if I say he can’t fix the economy, then the pollster can use this data against the President. If I say he can fix the economy, they can say that he hasn’t done what he is empowered to do. Or maybe I’m overthinking this.] I give it a 7, because I think the President could help the economy a lot, if he were allowed to do what is really necessary.

–President Obama is out of touch: 0

How would you describe Mitt Romney?

–Mitt Romney could fix the economy: 0 [Well, he could fix—meaning “rig”– the economy so that it works beautifully for the top 1%, but I doubt that he has any intention of making things better for the rest of Americans.]

–Mitt Romney is out of touch: 10 [Seriously? They’re asking this question?]

On a scale of 1 to 100, how concerned are you—meaning angry or upset—about the following?

-Politicians who don’t respect the rights of women: 80 [Did they throw in this question to try to give the impression that they’re interested in progressive issues?]

–Providing illegal immigrants with special discounts and scholarships at state universities. [Uh, oh, your prejudice is showing]: 5

–Cap and trade regulations that will drive up the price of energy in America. [Push!]: 2

–Politicians who fight for tax cuts for the rich and deep cuts in Medicare. [Another Trojan horse question]: 80

-China cheating on trade agreements and costing American companies millions of dollars: 3  [Just wanted to give an answer. It’s not an issue I think about very much. You have to wonder why they threw this one in.]

-Efforts to prevent the expansion of energy production in America, which is driving up the cost of gas: 3  [Will Republicans ever stop using the price of gas as a political issue?]

–Politicians who undercut traditional values by supporting gay marriage: 0

-Increasing the national debt and putting the burden on future generations: 0

-Passage of healthcare reform: 0

What does it all mean?

We can speculate as to who is paying for this poll and what they’re looking for. We can make some reasonable assumptions about why certain questions were asked. As to the accuracy of the gathered data, if my attempts at psychoanalyzing the questions and my efforts to game the poll are typical, any trends reported by the pollster would merit a great deal of skepticism.

I recently attended a presentation by an influential Missouri pollster who said that 80 percent of public-opinion polls are inaccurate, and that most published polls are skewed to make a point or to polish the image of the polling organization. The only polls that are at all accurate, he added, are internal polls, because pollsters who want to get paid by candidates can only gain their trust by telling them the truth.

I’m lucky, in a way. I live in a zip code that has a swing voting record and demographics that make it appealing to pollsters. So, although I am clearly in the progressive camp, I get polls, robo calls and mailings from both Democrats and Republicans. I get more than I can respond to. But I read some of the mailings and listen to some of the robocalls, just to get a feel for what’s out there. And, as I did last night, I answer some of the polls. It just seems to me that, in a political world in which campaigns and even ideas are driven, to an alarming extent, by data[and I use that term lightly] from polls, it helps to know how the opinion-shapers are getting their information.

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David McCandless loves pie. And he loves information, too. But he hates pie charts. So, he’s doing something about that. Calling himself a “data journalist” and “information designer,” McCandless has given himself the task of turning facts, data, ideas, issues, statistics and questions into visual information.

Describing himself as “into anything strange and interesting,” he describes his work this way:

I’m interested in how designed information can help us understand the world, cut through BS and reveal the hidden connections, patterns and stories underneath. Or, failing that, it can just look cool!

A look at his website demonstrates McCandless’ skill in combining intellectual curiosity, data and imaginative design. The result of his wide-ranging efforts is Information is Beautiful, a treasure-trove of information that’s presented in often unusual–but highly informative—visualizations. Not one of which is a pie chart.

Among his works is “Mountains Out of Molehills.” In a “chart” [don’t tell him I used that word, please] in which data forms mountain peaks of varying altitudes, McCandless presents a timeline of globally hyped media scare stories from the past decade. Most of the scares concern dire predictions of mass deaths caused by flu, the SARS virus or even “killer Wi-Fi,” and a collision between Earth and a giant asteroid.  You see the duration and intensity of media attention, and the actual outcomes. Information sources are as varied as the topics, and McCandless is scrupulous about crediting other researchers and news sources.

One relatively steep “mountain range” represents media stories from 2005 through 2007 about the “catastrophic threat of bird flu.” In a key below the visualization, McCandless reveals the actual number of bird flu deaths reported by the media: 262. As for that Earth/asteroid collision scare, it creates a low-rise but pesky group of hillocks that persist from 2000 into 2009 [the last year represented in the visualization]. Number of deaths reported as a result of this non-event: 0 [to date].

Other non-pie-charts on Information is Beautiful have names like: “When Sea Levels Attack” [a timeline of when various cities could be underwater as ocean levels rise]; “Timelines ” [time travel in popular tv and movies—a mesmerizing, convoluted diagram that’s a mind-bender, even for non-Trekkies]; and “How many nukes would it take to destroy the world” [self-explanatory, but scary]. Information sources are as varied as the topics. Personally, I can’t wait to see what’s next.

McCandless’ work appears in The Guardian, Wired and other publications. A compendium of his data designs, called The Visual Miscellaneum, was published in 2009. I highly recommend his website–but  not if you have a looming deadline at work or school, or an important date.

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The map above (blue = Democratic and red = Republican) shows voting shifts from 2004 to 2008. According to corporate-owned-media pundits, America is a “center-right” nation. We hear this repeated so often by talking heads on both the right and left, it’s easy to assume it’s true. Yet, for years, polls have shown that Americans, if anything, are solidly progressive in their policy attitudes. This collection of poll results is from Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics by Paul Street (Boulder, CO: Paradigm, 2008). Street in turn, summarized them from a chapter in The New Feminized Majority by Katherine Adams and Charles Derber (Boulder, CO: Paradigm, 2008).

The polls cited are a few years old and were taken during the Bush administration. In the meantime, we have elected a Democratic President and given Democratic majorities to both Houses, suggesting that the progressive trend continues. The map shows a blue country, not a red country. And these polls show why the country shifted blue in 2008.

69 percent of U.S. voters agree that, “government should care for those who cannot care for themselves.” (Pew Research, 2007)

54 percent of voters agree that, “government should help the needy even if it means greater debt.” (Pew Research, 2007)

58 percent of Americans believe the U.S. government should be doing more for its citizens, not less. (National Elections Survey, 2004)

64 percent of Americans would pay higher taxes to guarantee health care for all U.S. citizens (CNN Opinion Research Poll, May 2007)

69 percent of Americans think it is the responsibility of the federal government to provide health coverage to all U. S. citizens. (Gallup Poll, 2006)

80 percent of Americans support a government mandated increase in the minimum wage. (Associated Press/AOL Poll, December 2006)

86 percent of Americans want Congress to pass legislation to raise the federal minimum wage (CNN, August 2006)

71 percent of Americans think that taxes on corporations are too low. (Gallup Poll, April 2007)

66 percent of Americans think taxes on upper-income people are too low. (Gallup Poll, 2006)

52 percent of Americans generally side with unions in labor disputes. Just 34 percent side with management. (Gallup Poll, 2006)

57 percent of Americans want to keep abortion legal in all or most cases. (Washington Post/ABC News 2007)

78 percent of Americans think “women should have an equal role with men in running business, industry, and government.” (National Elections Survey, 2004)

57 percent of Americans support programs which “give special preference to qualified women and minorities in hiring. (Pew Poll, 2003)

A majority of American voters think that the United States’ “most urgent moral question” is either “greed or materialism” (33 percent) or “poverty and economic injustice” (31 percent). Just 16 percent identify abortion and 12 percent pick gay marriage as the nation’s “most urgent moral question.” (Zogby, 2004.) Thus, nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of the population think that injustice and inequality are the nation’s leading “moral issues.”

67 percent of Americans think the U.S. should emphasize diplomatic and economic means over military methods in combating terrorism. (Public Agenda and Foreign Affairs, 2007)

Just 15 percent of Americans think the U.S. should play “the leading role in the world” (Gallup Poll, February 2007)—a remarkable rejection of U.S. global hegemony and empire.

58 percent of Americans think the U.S. should play “a major role but not the leading role in the world” (Gallup Poll. February 2007)

62 percent of Americans in September of 2007 thought the invasion of Iraq was “a mistake.” (CBS News, September 2007)

A majority of Americans want a firm deadline for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. (Washington Post/ABC News, February, 2007)

70 percent of Americans want a multilateral nuclear disarmament treaty (Pew Poll, November 2005)

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