Polls Mislead if Participants Not Informed on Issues

Nobody loves polls any more than I do; NOBODY. I follow so many different polls that I find myself waking up at three in the morning and screaming, "But the polls said he would win!" Seriously, I do follow the polls closely. I get the Rasmussen Report every day on my email INBOX and when they have a 'special report' I get that too. Sometimes I get so numb that I feel like I have been rapped on the head with pole instead of a poll. I criticize them; I belittle them; I try to ignore them; I repeat them; and then I re-read them; but do I learn anything. Absolutely not. However, I just can't stop reading them.

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Fox News, Newsmax online is one of those that will create a poll out of nothing. They might even take a poll to see what the average person (I assume they took a poll to determine what is 'average') thinks about the mating habits of the tsetse fly in areas other than Africa. But they first had to take a poll to find out if there were any other areas. (* just kidding.) And polls taken today are like the daily lottery numbers; only germane for 30 seconds after disclosure. Polls can be "stacked" or influenced by using selective participants. Example: If you were an Obama worshiper and wanted a poll showing who the greatest American president ever was, you would take that poll in downtown Detroit, St. Louis, and Washington, DC. For the opposite results you would take that poll in ultra heavy conservative districts in conservative states... But basically, the major pollsters do try to get a fair and honest sampling of opinion from many different and diverse areas of the country and in known heavy voter turnout districts.

GOP field of candidates for the election year of 2012

I bring this up because just very recently on March 29, 2011 a poll taken jointly by Newsmax (Fox News) and IBOPE Zogby International did an exclusive poll on the GOP field of candidates for the election year of 2012. The results of this poll prove to me that no polls should be taken in a serious vein twenty months before the actual voting day. In addition, few of the prospective or suspected candidates have even hinted that they are in a campaign mode. And I'd like to see it stay that way for about twelve more months. If we can't sort out the merits and foibles of the runners in eight months, then maybe we should open national voter education and training centers around the country to teach the voters what to look for in a candidate and the questions to ask. The aforementioned Newsmax/Zogby poll was taken on the chances of eleven named GOP candidates; some of whom have stated they would not be in the running for this coming presidential election in November 2012, while at least three more known possibiles weren't even mentioned. The candidates included in the poll and the order of finish by percentage of votes were, Christie, Palin, Gingrich, Romney, Paul, Bachmann, Huckabee, Pawlenty, Trump, Daniels, Barbour. Some of these have fielded exploratory vehicles to test the waters for a potential run; others have hinted very strongly that they would not be inclined to enter the race; in fact the winner, NJ Governor Christie has declared not to be a contestant; and in my opinion the 2nd place finisher, Sarah Palin should declare that also due to her job-killing, big government and expensive position of granting amnesty to all the illegal aliens here now which are not real conservative ways of solving the illegals problem and others that are still reluctant to make any sort of commitment stronger than a grin. So the Newsmax/Zogby poll had eleven potential candidates named as candidate potentials to vie for the votes; but would you believe that there are at the very least, FIFTEEN more names that can be added to any future poll of known possible Republican candidates? Their last names with no further ID to take up space are, in no particular order: DeMint, Guiliani, Bolton, Jindal, Bloomberg, Huntsman, Santorium, Cain, Bush, Johnson, McDonnell, Pence, Petraeus, Rubio and Thune. Some of the total 26 names have at one time or another opted out and then even opted back in without an official declaration, so don't count too heavily on anything you've heard or will possibly hear in the near future on any candidate. Also, don't count on the field remaining at the 26 possible level; that could change before I finish typing this sentence. In fact, you may find this a bit ludicrous, but one of my loyal readers went so far as to email me and ask me to get in the race. It really is true. Just don't get overly concerned as it won't happen, though I thank the gentleman from Tennessee for his faith in my competence to serve in that role, which I can not share. So if we do wind up with 26 souls all trying to be the Republican candidate, it doesn't look at this moment that we'll have an excess of conservatives in the mix. In such a large field there hasn't been much time for detailed research on their political resumes and I would only vouch for less than a handful to be legitimate conservatives. I'll try to keep you informed re their qualifications as the weeks and months get fewer.

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