We should disregard ALL opinion polls.
Why?
What are the qualifications for being cited in an opinion poll?
Do you have to be educated?
Do you have to be a rational thinker?
Do you have to be politically neutral?
The fact is, the polls are constructed to give certain results. In addition, the surveys are often given to particular geographic areas where their results will be slanted.
And finally, the reason for polling is not to find out what is right or wrong, but to be used as a tool in a PR campaign to serve a political agenda.
Advertising firms figured it out long ago that if you want to build popularity for a product, the first thing you do is survey 10 people in the factory where it is made and ask them if they think it is good. Then, you do a campaign saying "8 out of 10 people think this is great!"
Then they poll the recipients of the campaign and it might be at 10% that truly think the product is great. So they run the same "8 out of 10" PR for a longer period, use different time slots, etc... and then go back out and see how it worked. If they can get it up to 35 or 40%, they have done a GREAT job.
Agreed!