Virtually all for public consumption polls are designed to INFLUENCE public opinion and not to measure it!
There ARE honest polls but the public rarely, if ever, sees the results.
What you say is very close to what I believe about polling.
Actually your statement here.... “Virtually all for public consumption polls are designed to INFLUENCE public opinion and not to measure it!”
I agree with that 250%, spot on.
You may also be right about there being honest polls, but the public rarely,if ever see them.
Just that I believe (the phony public polls that we do agree on as being phony) that these media polls actually do influence people, advertising works, at least on the masses, so that if a genuine honest pollster wants to get a true picture, even his poll will be reflective of the bias public media pollsters.
This just happens to be a subject that I believe quite deeply about, a pet peeve shall we say.
And for full disclosure I am 100% in the tank for Gov Palin, but I have held this same view of polling prior to even hearing of Gov Palin.
And just watch, we will see a huge surge in the public media polls for Michelle Bachmann in the coming days and weeks, and make no mistake this will be a push by the MSM/Rep establishment polling, and will probably help MB.
So phony polls have the ability to become reality.