The Nashville Presidential Debate Report

Well, one thing is for sure, we had a great time. The objectives were to spread the word about what we're doing with Informed Opinions and to generate some data that we could use on the site. I think we scored on both accounts.

Our survey, which was really a 20-question quiz, was well-received. We halfway expected people to get angry at us, especially people who didn't do well, but that wasn't the case. We positioned the survey as our effort to get a feel for how informed people are in interested in politics are. And we made it clear that we're completely non-partisan. We're interested in improving our civic approach to political affairs. The outcome of that approach doesn't really matter to us. Even people who scored very poorly could appreciate that.

I always emphasize the idea that paying attention to politics and current events requires an effort, and some people just can't fit it into their lives. No judgements here. The point is only that people like that should refrain from being "influencers" in political thinking.

What is an influencer? Someone who advertises a preference for a candidate, policy, or party. We think you shouldn't wear a McCain shirt if you don't know much about politics, history, and current events. Sure, you can just like the guy, and even vote for him just because you like him, but leave it at that. No need to unjustifiably influence someone else's opinion of McCain. Obviously, the same goes for Obama.

In any case, we had more than 90 people participate. The scores were all over the place, but my preliminary assessment is that folks averaged around 65% correct. There was only one 100% - an older woman and her husband. Given that we were on a college campus and we had a booth in the "Debate Block Party" that was put on by the school, we expected to get a population of people who were considerably more informed than say the general public. All in all, I'd say we did. But it still boggles the mind to talk to someone so in the bag for one candidate or another (it was almost always Obama) who could not get half the questions correct.

Interestingly, the low scorers weren't necessarily embarrassed. And they didn't get mad when I'd ask them why they were such big fans of their candidate if they didn't really know much about him or about politics in general. Seemed like I was putting them on the spot, but they really didn't care. It's as if this notion that you should know something about the people and politics you claim to like was totally foreign to them. I guess that's why we're doing this.

I'm tallying the actual results of the test over the next few days, so I'll post some more concrete numbers soon enough. And we're processing the video we took, as well, so some clips should be making their way online soon. Stay tuned...