The problem with polls
Do political polls have any news value? I mean, they are sort of interesting, in that here's-what-1,000-people-are-thinking-at-this-precise-moment-in-time way. Actually, I probably should have said here's what they say they are thinking, given that we know that some people lie to pollsters. And don't forget the usual 3% margin of error.
Here are four recent ones. ABC-Washington Post, Zogby, Gallup, and Rasmussen. All have different, yet similar results.
In the end, are the results important to the common citizen? Do they tell us anything of particular use? Do they affect the way that people vote, with voters either casting their ballots for the "winner" or voters becoming non-voters, thinking their vote won't count?
The only benefit of polls I can think of is that good reporters use them to inform their stories about campaign strategy. Unfortunately, too often polls are merely used to track the political horse race. And to me, that has little value to the common voter.
Of course, I may change my mind the next time I'm asked.
Comments (2)
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Polls are becoming more and more meaningless because pollsters can easily manipulate the results, and more and more of us are refusing to talk to pollster, or we mislead them!
If you are polling an election why would you poll anyone other than likely voters? Polling registered voters is useless because we know only 30-60 percent actually vote. So who cares who they support!
Some pollsters manipulate the outcome by they way they sample voters. One recent poll had blacks as 23 percent of those polled! Blacks make up about 12 percent of the population.
When the liberal media has a horse in the race, as they usually do, they manipulate the poll to make it appear that their candidate is leading by a bigger margin than is rally the case. They even do this with exit polls. Do you remember the early exit polling in 2004 had Kerry a big winner. How did that one work out! One idiot liberal pundit claimed fraud because the actual vote was significantly than the exit polling! The liberal mind is something to behold.
Posted on October 13, 2008 1:34 PM
Polls are merely a gauge of how well the mainstream media is swaying viewers/readers to their way of thinking.
Example: A politician makes an outrageous claim on a Sunday morning news talk show. The mainstream media has pundits, politicians, etc., onboard all week supporting the outrageous claim. On Friday a poll shows a majority of people believe the claim. On Sunday the same politician waves there results of the polls and says, "See, I was right!"
Polls only influence those insecure enough to vote with the crowd in order to be a part of the crowd.
Posted on October 13, 2008 2:05 PM