Reply #4: Sure, I can do that, but

[liberalhistorian]

I'll have to look up his exact words in my Truman biography. Basically, he said that there'd come a time when the polls would "take over", as politicians and the press would be far too reliant on them. Politicians wouldn't really stand for anything solid and would be too afraid to stand up for their convictions, and their every move would be based on polls. And the general public would come to vote not on the basis of who they really wanted, but on the basis of what the polls said. If they're for Candidate A but the polls show that he/she doesn't have a high rating, even if it's months before an election, people tend not to vote for him/her because they'll feel their vote is wasted.

And all of that is pretty much what's happened! Truman was a very brave president who did the right thing most of the time even though it was often politically unpopular, and he took a lot of shit for it. Too bad we don't have many like that anymore, Dem or Repub.