Quinnipiac Polled

I rarely get polled.

Much of that is my age. Once the poller gets to that point, usually on of their first three questions, it's, "Oh, you're not in the age group we want good-bye." Translation: my attitudes are set, push-polling will be ineffective, I don't buy the same type of products they want to promote. I only take that as their declaration that I'm not important... to them. Their loss.

Other parts of not getting polled include having a cell phone, having caller ID to help me screen for already-wanted callers, and simply hanging up on pollers because I choose not to take the time for it.

I found it a pleasant surprise when I got a call from the Quinnipiac folks last week. The only qualifier they wanted was whether I lived in Minnesota. I answered, truthfully, that I was a part-time resident but was currently in Arizona. I think it left it open for the young man to interpret that as a "Yes" for whatever percentage point was important to him. At any rate, this was a call I wanted to take. I was also pleased when my age only came up in the final questions.

The general topic centered around national politics. What did I think about various issues, how important were they to me, did I intend to vote and what drove my choices on the ballot? I'm sure all who know me can fill in the blanks for any of those questions on my behalf. No need to belabor the obvious.

Two things, however, stood out. It wasn't just my having more knowledge on several topics than my caller did. They stood out in how they showed just how unaware of current issues he was, way beyond any possible attempt to avoid influencing me. First, he had no idea how "Mueller" was pronounced. I corrected him gently, acknowledging it was spelled as if it had a long "u", but in this case was pronounced "uh".

How could anybody have missed that in the last couple years?

The second came when, at the end of the call, he thanked me for taking the time to participate in the poll. In turn, I thanked him for his call, informing him I had heard a lot about this polling organization and was delighted to take part. He was astounded I -or perhaps anybody - had ever heard of it.

Hmmm.... Maybe he needs to listen to public radio?

Maybe he just needs to listen?