http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1242421/posts
Media Polls - Media Shills - Rip Bush
These polls are self-fulfilling in a sense.
That is a typical media trick. Prominently report and push a rumor (as a rumor -- "some people are saying that ..."), poll on the rumor, then report (as if it's a fact that exists outside of this "push") that most people think 'the rumor' is true.
Parallel case in point. Some high school kids in Wisconsin did a study regarding the rate of violent crime (number of victims per 100,000 population), the rate of prominent stories about individual violent crimes, and public perception of the crime rate. They found a correlation between the rate of reporting and public perception. The public thought the crime rate was up when crime was reported more, even while the crime rate was in fact down. Perception trumps reality every time.
Another case, "the summer of the shark attacks."