These polls matter because the popular vote winner will likely win the electoral college. Yes in 2000, Gore did win the popular vote - but that election was razor close at 48.4 Gore to 47.9 Bush.
If Obama wins by a percentage point or more he would almost certainly win the electoral college tally, and the same goes for the GOP nominee. So yeah, these polls matter - particularly when you use something like the RCP average.
Very good point, there. The Left though would rather make it a purely popular vote—they don’t want another Gore scenario.
But yes, popular vote winner likely wins the EV too and indeed the ‘00 election was razor close.
1968 was razor close too
Nixon R 31,783,783
Humphrey D 31,271,839
Wallace Amer. Independent 9,901,118
States won: Nixon 32, Humphrey 15, Wallace 5 (in the
SouthEast)
Nixon 43.4 per cent
Humph. 42.7 per cent
Wallace 13.5 %
One faithless elector from NC voted for Wallace not Nixon
Total electoral votes:
Nixon 301
Humph. 191
Wallace 46
It didn’t seem close if you look at elec. votes, but note
how close it was in popular vote. What if Wallace were
not in the race? Anyway, pop. vote margin win by about
500,000 or so for Nixon. Close.