From Time Magazine, April 30, 1979 regarding Carter vs. Reagan: Asked to choose between the two men as candidates for President, those questioned in the survey divided evenly, 42% for each man, with 16% undecided. In this test matching, Carter managed to better Reagan only in the Midwest, while losing the Northeast, the West and even his native South to the former California Governor.
I don't trust polls.
"...April 30, 1979 regarding Carter vs. Reagan: Asked to choose between the two men as candidates for President, those questioned in the survey divided evenly, 42% for each man, with 16% undecided. In this test matching, Carter managed to better Reagan only in the Midwest, while losing the Northeast, the West and even his native South to the former California Governor. I don't trust polls."
By just before the election, the polls showed a HUGE Reagan blowout, and both sides knew it. Both essentially stopped campaigning the last couple of days before because it was all over by then. The pollsters and television news kept it secret, but they knew it. This came out later.
I remember voting and later attending a three-hour night class. At the halfway break in the class, some guys went over to the union for ice cream cones. They came back clutching their cones and said, "It's a landslide for Reagan." I was so surprised and pleased! No one knew ahead of times except the pollsters, the two campaigns, and almost certainly the newspeople. Everybody kept quiet. Actually the better polls are quite accurate, and the campaigns' own polls are VERY accurate.