Today's "question of the day" at MSNBC.com is "SHOULD WELFARE RECIPIENTS BE ALLOWED TO GO TO COLLEGE INSTEAD OF WORKING?" The way the question is worded seems designed to ensure that they'll get more responses supporting the Bush administration ("no" votes) and fewer votes supporting the idea of helping people on welfare learn enough that they can earn enough to get off welfare:

http://www.msnbc.com/news/778726.asp?0cm=c10

Although I hate these polls and think they're pretty useless, I went ahead and voted. I also sent a message to MSNBC.com (question@msnbc.com) about how slanted the wording is. Here's the message I sent:

"Research over many years demonstrates that more education leads to better paying jobs. Recent studies of the 2000 census show that this has become more true in recent years. Therefore, if we allow welfare recipients to go to college, we increase the likelihood that they will earn enough to get off and stay off welfare in the long run.

"Unfortunately, the way you've worded your question is misleading. Some people might assume from the way it's worded that welfare rules allow people on welfare to go to college indefinitely as a way of putting off work. That's not the case at all. Current welfare rules allow some college to count toward work requirements, but under very strict limitations. Because of the way you've worded this question, you've guaranteed that you'll see more "no" votes than "yes" votes. I am certain that if your question explained the existing rules better, more people would vote "yes" than will to the question you have posed."

Please feel free to vote, and to tell MSNBC to stop this kind of push-polling. It's either sleazy or incompetent, and either is inexcusable.