What I find interesting .. right after Edwards was picked there were all the prognastications about the "bounce" Kerry was going to get. A couple of days went by .. no bounce .. several of the very credible pollsters said .. no bounce. Then .. out of the blue here is Newsweak and Zogby showing that Kerry got a bounce and now he's ahead of Bush.
However .. none of these polls have Kerry above Bush's 53% which Gallup had several days ago .. and Newsweak and Zogby had Bush back down to the usual 44%.
If you go back and look at Reagan's '84 win .. the numbers were very similar .. like those same pollsters had done the same thing to Reagan .. making it appear Reagan was losing .. when in effect THEY ALREADY KNEW HE WAS WINNING.
This whole thing with the numbers has only one purpose. The purpose is to get us discouraged and defeated and TO GIVE UP. I simply refuse to allow that to happen.
I ignore all the polls. They are all the prognosticators have to talk about at this time and they - the polls - are pretty much meaningless. I always take to heart what Ann Coulter says: there's only one poll that counts, and this year it will be taken on November 2nd!
However .. none of these polls have Kerry above Bush's 53% which Gallup had several days ago .. and Newsweak and Zogby had Bush back down to the usual 44%.
If you go back and look at Reagan's '84 win .. the numbers were very similar .. like those same pollsters had done the same thing to Reagan .. making it appear Reagan was losing .. when in effect THEY ALREADY KNEW HE WAS WINNING.
This whole thing with the numbers has only one purpose. The purpose is to get us discouraged and defeated and TO GIVE UP. I simply refuse to allow that to happen.
As you suggest, polls often function to manipulate popular opinion, rather than to represent it. That's why I am deeply suspicious of most of them.