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To: Steve Lokness who wrote (25184)	8/27/2012 2:09:23 PM
From: Jorj X Mckie	2 Recommendations Respond to of 85487

The poll has MDs listed as a separate line item. Therefore they are not included in the poll. Additionally, the poll was of AAAS members, not a random poll of scientists. The stated goals of AAAS are: As a member of AAAS your involvement actively supports programs that: Help governments formulate science policy ( Learn More) Promote advancements in science education ( Learn More) Increase diversity in the scientific community ( Learn More) Use science to advance human rights ( Learn More) Assist individual scientists in developing their careers ( Learn More) Communicate the value of science to the general public ( Learn More) If you look at the stated goals of the AAAS, it is clear that it will self select for people with strong liberal ideologies. Look at the council......what does the AAAS council makeup indicate? aaas.org

To: Steve Lokness who wrote (25184)	8/27/2012 2:17:42 PM
From: gamesmistress	2 Recommendations Respond to of 85487

I haven't found any summary breakdown of scientists by industry, so I checked out AAAS and the survey itself. It doesn't look like they asked about where the scientists worked, just their specialty. AAAS "serves some 261 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals." Based on their annual report, they are pretty left-leaning. About the Scientist Survey Results for the scientist survey are based on 2,533 online interviews conducted from May 1 to June 14, 2009 with members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International. A sample of 9,998 members was drawn from the AAAS membership list excluding those who were not based in the United States or whose membership type identified them as primary or secondary-level educators. Founded in 1848, AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society, and includes members representing all scientific fields. AAAS publishes Science, one of the most widely circulated peer-reviewed scientific journals in the world. Membership in AAAS is open to all. Each person sampled was mailed a letter on stationery with logos of both the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and AAAS. The letter was signed by Andrew Kohut, President of the Pew Research Center and Alan I. Leshner, Chief Executive Officer of AAAS. These letters were intended to introduce the survey to prospective respondents, describe the nature and purpose of the survey and encourage participation in the survey. The advance letter contained a URL and a password for a secure website where the survey could be completed. The letter also included a toll-free number for respondents to call if they had questions. Subsequent requests to complete the survey were sent to those who had not yet responded. These requests were sent by email for those who could be contacted this way (three e-mail reminders were sent) and by postal mail for members who had told AAAS they preferred not be contacted by e-mail (a postcard and letter reminder were sent). A total of 1,411 of the 5,816 sampled members in the e-mail group completed the interview for a response rate of 24%. In the mail group, 1,122 members of the 4,182 sampled completed the survey for a response rate of 27%. The overall response rate for the study was 25% (2,533 completes/9,998 sampled members). Nearly all respondents completed the survey online; however, a very small number requested to complete the survey in another mode; twenty interviews were completed by telephone. Nonresponse in surveys can produce biases in survey-derived estimates because participation may vary for subgroups of a population, who may differ on questions of substantive interest. In order to correct for these biases, weighting is often employed. To evaluate the possibility of nonresponse bias in the scientist survey, respondent characteristics from the obtained sample were compared with known characteristics of the population, based on membership and demographic information in the AAAS membership database. For most characteristics the sample was very representative of the population of all members. The most notable differences were that the sample underrepresented student members and overrepresented those with emeritus status. There also were differences in response rates between those who could be contacted by e-mail and those for whom no e-mail address existed or e-mail contact was not permitted. To correct these potential biases, the data were weighted so that the sample matched the two parameters of contact mode and member category from the AAAS membership database. The following table shows the error attributable to sampling that would be expected at the 95% level of confidence for different groups in the scientist survey:

To: Steve Lokness who wrote (25184)	8/27/2012 4:17:08 PM
From: Brian Sullivan	Respond to of 85487

Ad With Former Obama Backers Deemed Most Effective By Scott Conroy - August 26, 2012 from Peter Dierks TAMPA -- With swing-state denizens facing 10 more weeks of campaign ad bombardment, the conservative advocacy organization Americans for Prosperity may be cutting through the clutter most effectively with its relatively low-key attacks on President Obama. That, at least, was the clear verdict offered by 23 Florida voters on Sunday during a focus group convened by Republican pollster and strategist Frank Luntz. Almost everyone in the group said they voted for Obama in 2008, but they were about evenly split between Obama and Mitt Romney in the 2012 race, with several still undecided. Luntz showed the group more than a dozen negative TV ads funded by both presidential campaigns and outside groups and asked participants to rate on a scale of zero to 100 the impact of each ad, regardless of which candidate they are leaning toward. A majority pointed to a 60-second AFP spot -- which has been running in swing states as part of a reported $27 million advertising blitz by the Koch brothers-backed group -- as the most effective ad of the current cycle. In the ad, voters who cast their ballots for Obama four years ago speak directly to the camera about why they would not make the same decision in 2012. “He said he was going to cut the deficit in his first term; I’ve seen zero interest in reducing spending,” one man says. “He inherited a bad situation, but he made it worse.” The ad made an especially strong impression on registered Republicans in the Luntz focus group, but registered Democrats and participants who said that they intended to vote for Obama again also gave it high marks. Asked what they liked about it, several cited the relatively subdued tone and the effectiveness of featuring “real people” instead of actors or politicians. “They basically said exactly what I’m thinking,” one of the participants said of those featured in the ad. “I can almost see myself in that ad,” another added. “It seemed the most real.” One female voter in the ad praises Obama as a “great person” but in the same breath questions his ability to lead the country. It’s a line of thought that Romney himself often echoed until recently and one that seemed to make a strong impact on the participants in Tampa, many of whom expressed continued personal admiration for the president during the two-hour session. “They’re telling you not to vote for Obama pretty much, but it’s not in a personal, negative way,” one focus group member said of the ad’s approach. Luntz told a small group of journalists who watched the proceedings from behind a one-way mirror that the AFP ad has been deemed the most effective by every focus group he has conducted around the country in recent months. By contrast, an American Crossroads spot that featured Obama interacting with various celebrities and mockingly referring to him as “one cool president” registered particularly low with the focus group. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/08/26/ad_with_former_obama_backers_deemed_most_effective_115213.html