What happened to Mr. All-Polls-Are-Crap?

Seriously, some of those questions would have gotten the answer "none" from me based on their phrasing. For instance, to challenge, successfully, an opponent's standing to be on the ballot is not the same as having him "thrown off" the ballot. One can only be disqualified by one's own actions. Thus, unless there's something about Biden, McCain or Palin I don't know, the answer to that question is "none".

I have been known to turn a multiple choice question into an essay question. Multiple choice questions can be loaded with ambiguity while still giving the appearance of objectivity, except when the topic of the question is a math problem.

I have not written polling questions, but I have experience in writing questions for surveys, which are similar. It's an art, to ask a question in a way that gets the respondent to give you the information you want.

The information Zeigler wanted was confirmation of his belief that Obama supporters are ill-informed. Thus: ask misleading questions, or questions that reflect opposition talking points presented as facts, which the respondents may disagree with. Then claim to be vindicated when the respondents don't answer the questions in a way that is designated to be in agreement with the so-called facts.

It's not that the Obama campaign controlled the information stream as much as that the voters did not believe the information being tendered by the McCain campaign. And after being lied to for two terms by the Bush administration, no one should be surprised by this.

I would be very interested to learn how the questioners identified themselves. That too reflects the way in which respondents answer the questions. (The stuff I've done has included cover letters, as is the case with surveys not conducted by personal interview.) I looked for the intro statement that should be part of the methodology. Did you see it? I must have missed it.