Reply #39: How is supporting any candidate during the primary "out of touch"?

[leftofthedial]

you DO understand what primaries are, don't you?

Partisan pollsters have to worry about helping their clients win, and if you want to win you need the most accurate picture of the situation you can get.

That is not the primary purpose of political polling anymore. Successful (that is, neocon) candidates use polls to spin issues, to uncover points that can be spun on issues, and for damage control. They also use them to frame the debate. Third, they use them to counter the opposition's polling results. They are at best marginally useful in determining actual widespread public opinion.

Independent pollsters have to worry about getting clients and the more accurate the more clients you will get.

Fiirst, almost no political pollsters are "independent." Second, they make their money by accomplishing the functions described above, not by discovering the truth. Third, they get hired mostly to tell their clients what they want to hear.

Media pollsters have to worry about selling newspaper/getting viewers and the more accurate you are the more you get.

Not true. The more your poll reflects the biases of the people who read newspapers, the more you get. It's entertainment, not journalism.

Go read about the history of exit polling and see what the lengths the media outlets were going to be the first and the most accurate.

Objective exit polling WAS an accurate early read on election results. There were no exit polls in 2000. This is a tactical, isolated form of polling that is intended to predict an outcome that will be verified factually within hours. Yes, they work hard to make it accurate. This has almost nothing to do with the conventional practice of political polling day in and day out.