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I'm not sure what all the fuss is about but there seem to be an awful lot of people on this board who are chanting "down with polls and those who post them". I guess the reasoning is that posting a bad poll showing Kerry trailing is "negativism" that makes some readers of this board "depressed". This hurts "morale" or something.
I guess I am a little older (60) and maybe a little more toughened by many, many campaigns than some on this board. I consider every poll, bad or good,to be information, to be newsworthy in some way and thus worthy of discussion by what I was led to believe was a politically sophisticated group of loyal Democrats.
The fact that these polls are out there obviously "informing the voting public" and are widely featured in major media outlets makes them part of the campaign landscape. A part that needs to be addressed early and often by political activists...the very people I was led to believe contributed to this board. If the polls and the media presentation of them seem deceptive and doing possible perceptual harm to our side they must be analyzed and dealt with. This is common sense.
I've come to know and appreciate the hard work of some very good people on this board who know polling, its inborn biases, and what is behind the bare headlines that the voters are being fed. Pay attention to them. Learn and take it out in the street with you. Arm yourself with knowledge to counter the deceptions. Write early and often to the news media using calm, intelligent, and reasoned language based on that knowledge.
But sticking your fingers in your ears and yelling "nah, nah, nah" until the "bad thing" goes away is not particularly helpful. I prefer to fight back... and fight on. There is too much at stake here.
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