Who participates in focus groups?

I'm rather skeptical as to whether or not the composition of focus groups is truly reflective of the electorate, or of "undecided" voters. CNN and Fox News both had such groups featured tonight.

How are these groups put together? Do the participants get paid? I would imagine that they do. Is that truly reflective of the electorate?

I know that the little focus group meters they have seemed off. When McCain was sticking it to Obama, it seemed like the GOP line never really went up that high. Like, for example, when the debate turned to spending and McCain called for a spending freeze. One would think the average GOP voter would love that. It didn't seem to register that much.

Basically, I think those groups are a crock and their results are impacted by the self selection that occurs when people sign up to participate. I really wonder how many taxpayers are in those groups, as well as how many were truly Republicans or Independents.

FOXNews.com | You Decide 08! Monday, September 8

Editor of Detroit Free Press Defends Use of CodePink Members in ‘Independent’ Focus Group

Anti-war group CodePink was able to infiltrate a focus group of so-called independent voters the newspaper interviewed during the political conventions, but said he didn’t see the harm in having a “radical leftist or... Read Full Blog Post »

Clearly, these are intelligent, well-informed voters LOL !!

Exactly! LOL! I've never understood why these so-called "undecided" voters are held in such high esteem at this stage in the process. I mean, c'mon, if you don't know who you're going to vote for by now, do everyone a favor and stay away from the polls.

And yet they continue to parade these "undecided" voters as if they are some prudent, scholarly sage, carefully pondering the subtle intricacies between each contender.

I used to participate in focus groups in 1986-87 and I got paid too, usually it was around $50-75 for about an hour of my time. Then my husband started getting calls and he was offered twice what I was, that's when I stopped. I guess his opinion was worth more money then mine!

And no my husband did not participate.

After I retired, I was paid as a consultant to conduct focus groups.

When you have good composite groups, the results are usually very accurate and predictive of what is happening in the real world.

Of course reality often isn’t wanted by businesses or politicians, so they will seed or plant their people in focus groups. When this happens, the focus group becomes an extension of the politician or business and reality goes out the window.

The rats in Luntz’s so called focus groups are like the rat programmed seminar callers to Rush’s and Sean’s programs. They claim to be republicans or independents, and the reality is they are life long rats. So they will initiate and control the responses of the so called groups. They are also like the Trolls on Free Republic with their BS of “I have been a Republican until they left me. Or, I voted for GW for governor and twice for president, and I left him and the party because he declared war on the whole world.

Re payment, sometimes it is a lunch or dinner and a token payment. Sometimes lunch or dinner in a plush restaurant with a very good payment or gift certificate. Depending on the groups, I authorized checks at the end of the session from $25 to $1,000 and sometimes just the lunch or dinner was the “pay”!

I wouldn’t waste my time watching a debate focus group on ABCNNBCBS or Fox.

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