Poll on the Presidential race polls

[mvd]

I look for trends and don't completely trust the Gallup and Rasmussen polls. I voted "I look for trends," but there's also some distrust.

[SteppingRazor]

1. Other: I ignore national polls and concentrate on state-by-state ones...

as well as how those numbers add up in the electoral college.

[mvd]

3. Agreed that state-by-states are very telling

Although sometimes they show movement after the national polls. Obama may win the election with CO, NM, and IA, yet lose by a bit in the popular vote. That would be justice, and our win would be honest.

[SteppingRazor]

4. If Obama actually lost the popular vote and won the election...

I wouldn't stop laughing till the 2012 election.

That said, It would be yet another reflection of the ridiculousness of the system. I could insert a lengthy diatribe here about the horrors of the electoral college and the democratizing influences a proportional representation system would bring, but you've probably heard it all before. :)

[mvd]

5. I agree

EC is an outdated system. :hi:

[ObamaKerryDem]

7. Haha, me too. :p

That would be some kickass poetic justice for sure! :D

[gateley]

2. I think they're useful only in that we know how some people are leaning.

I don't think they're prophetic, necessarily, but the closeness of this race, for example, makes me aware that there are still plenty more people than I ever dreamed of who are still in step with the Republicans.

If we didn't have the polls, I would blithely be of the belief that the vast majority of people feel as I do and that an Obama win would be a slam dunk.

[RichardRay]

6. I think they are all very useful, but that no single one means much.

I'm not worried about 'bias' from any of the mainstream pollsters who actually publish their methodologies. I can correct for those biases (or I now People Who Can) so it's all just data. OTOH, there is no single pollster or organization I trust in isolation. It's statistics, right?

I especially discount snapshot polls that try to tell me what's really happening right now in isolation from what happened recently; in that regard I agree with the 'look for trends' point.

I completely disregard any polling data released by a campaign, candidate or party, Democratic or Republican, other than to try to figure out why they want me to think what they're trying to get me to think.

[nam78_two]

8. I look at trends-that is pretty much it.nt

[TexasObserver]

9. Polls, like judges, politicians, lawyers, police and prosecutors can be crooked.

Who owns the polling companies?

What do the polling companies do for revenue when they're not polling the election?

Who are the polling companies literally partners with?


The sad reality is that the same interests that control the Republican party control the revenues to most of the polling companies.