tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7180592942896724433.post5491437296075640038..comments2023-12-13T05:02:37.426-05:00Comments on Pushed to the Left and Loving It: Could Alf Landon Save Canada? I Know. Alf Who?Emily Deehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08354341672810615468noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7180592942896724433.post-54940893902800403362010-12-15T10:27:58.210-05:002010-12-15T10:27:58.210-05:00Polls are ways to spend money and have something t...Polls are ways to spend money and have something to talk about. They are no more or less accurate than they have previously been. And previously, they have been hit or miss.<br /><br />If polls were actual predictors of the future, well, we could predict the future.<br /><br />Repost: They took polls for 08 as well. I ask you, on election night, were you absolutely sure that what happened was going to happen? If polls were always right, there would be no such thing as election night nerves, or surprises. <br /><br />If I am not mistaken, gamblers take bets on elections. Casinos. So do they often take bets on events with a known outcome? <br /><br />If polling really worked, there would be much less loss in many business efforts. But it does not work, not in that regard. As a way of making some spin that can be used to send a message that might help you win, polls work well. <br /><br />Note the recent use of nameless 'generic Republican v generic Democrat'. All the candidates are known at this point. Asking generic is a way to avoid the actual questions. These elections are not 'generic' in any way. They are in State, with known candidates. The guy running back east has zip to do with who's running here. <br /><br />They were polling away in 08 as well. I knew the deal a day or two out, when Bush Bumper Sticker neighbor told me he could not vote for a ticket with Palin on it, and that he was thinking about not just skipping that line, but voting for Obama, to prevent Palin from having office. Very conservative. But not an idiot. No poll would have asked him about that. And had they asked him on that day about a 'generic choice' he'd have said Republican. The choice was not generic. The real choice was Palin or a Democrat or no vote at all. <br /><br />If polls predicted the future, those who take them would be stunningly rich and powerful. Polls tell me more about the writer of the questions than about the people who answer them. The intention of the questions is more important than the surface content of those questions.<br /><br />http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x434Nadine Lumleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05591663475427502169noreply@blogger.com