Friday, October 12, 2012

Enough with the presidential polls already!

Seriously, enough. This whole polling people about whom they are going to vote for president has gotten way out of hand, as Jon Stewart so brilliantly demonstrated on The Daily Show Wednesday night. 


Did we really need to know two years in advance -- heck, one year or even six months or three months in advance -- who people planned to vote for? And who are these people? I don't know about all of you, but I don't answer my phone unless I know the name or number that flashes up on the Caller ID screen. And if for some reason I do pick up the phone and it's some pollster, I typically dismiss the person.

So who are the pollsters polling? Yes, yes, I know about the whole "registered voter" versus "likely voter" versus "undecided voter" thing. But what about "lying voters," which must make up a large percent of those polled (i.e., people who just want to f**k with the pollsters, and I've known a few)? So how do we know we can even trust these polls?!

And the frickin' survey results rarely change! Yes, they may vary by a few percentage points, but we're pretty much talking margin of error. And should we really trust people whose opinion changes every time they see a new ad or watch a debate? More importantly, weren't most people's minds made up long ago?

So please, Pew, Gallup, Rasmussen, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and the rest of you, we the people are begging you, give it a rest. We don't need a poll every other fickin' day.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I worked at the Harris Poll in college. You would be AMAZED at how willing people were to talk to me.

My fav was after a rather long poll (30 minutes) I told the woman that she could get back to her baby (crying in the background), "That's my goat).

I learned that America is vast and diverse-VERY!!!

Dave S. said...

Wonder what it takes to make a goat cry? I'll call a bunch of people and ask them what they think.