Over the last year the scandal in the White House has caused many of us to wonder what is going on in this country. And it has also caused many of us to wonder if the polls we read about are accurate. Now a recent Wall Street Journal editorial points out that the latest polls about Juanita Broaddrick again raise that troubling question.
Just over a week ago, NBC aired the interview with Mrs. Broaddrick in which she alleged that Bill Clinton sexually assaulted her twenty-one years ago. A CNN/Gallup poll released Monday, March 1 said that the public believed President Clinton by a margin of 54% to 34%. So many in the media have declared the story to be dead.
Well (to borrow from Paul Harvey) let me tell you the rest of the story. Any poll is influenced by who is questioned and what questions they are asked. In the case of the Juanita Broaddrick poll, that makes all the difference in the world.
For example, if you poll those who watched the NBC interview with Mrs. Broaddrick, you get much different answers than if you poll a much larger crowd of people who were probably watching Madonna win a Grammy at the same hour. And there is a striking difference if people were asked if they believe the President raped her or if they were asked if the allegations of sexual assault were true.
A Fox News poll conducted a day before the CNN/Gallup Poll asked about sexual assault rather than rape. That poll found that 54% believed Mrs. Broaddrick. And that number zoomed to 62% when the question was asked of those familiar with the allegations.
The bottom line is this: one poll says that only one-third of Americans believe Mrs. Broaddrick while another poll says that two-thirds of Americans believe her. So the next time you hear a poll, take it with a grain of salt.
I'm Kerby Anderson of Probe Ministries, and that's my opinion.