[ClaireSolt]

Rather than dismissing polls out-of-hand, it is best to learn sound methodology so you can criticize them. Undoubtably, the best way to skew them is by the questions you ask. This Iraq casualties issue is getting to feel almost like a wag the dog. Yesterday, a friend told me that there are 171 drug overdose deaths a day in Miami, but the media wants us to think our worst problem is one casualty a day in Iraq.

[defconw]

You really need to study the internals, basically they are admittedly skewed. I mean especially the sampling then in the phraseology of the questions.

[HonestConservative]

"Rather than dismissing polls out-of-hand, it is best to learn sound methodology so you can criticize them."

Numbers don't lie, people do. At the expense of immodesty and only to make a point, I have a very sound and practiced working knowledge of statistics and their use to tilt an argument. That being said, the political polls that I see from BOTH parties and from many media and political entities are so poorly done as to make the info gleaned from them useless from a purely scientific research point of view.

So much wiggle room exists in each question for interpretation and manipulation as to insult the intelligence of all of us. There are exceptions of course, but most that we see are written to elicit a specific result. Simply a tool of the spinmeisters.
From that standpoint, we can all be honestly sick of polls.