> I've taken some heat for interviewing Richard Burkholder, who
> supervised Gallup's poll of Baghdad.
Really? I thought that was a brilliant interview. I must have told 10 people they should listen to it at your website, including a reporter who'd just recently been in Iraq with whom I'd been discussing the subject. Everybody, in every argument, at some key point assumes a rough guess at what Iraqi public opinion is. This was far and away the most serious attempt to actually ask people. And to consider seriously all the obvious obstacles, and make the best possible attempt to overcome them, both methodologically and in the ensuing interpretation.
There were dozens of articles on this poll when it came out, many of which were critiques each other's distortions of the results. But this interview is head and shoulders above the crowd. It deserves more publicity. Especially since Burkholder says it's going to be a ongoing study in order to determine change. I think he did a great job setting a baseline.
Michael