I Hate Polls

And here's why. Usually they don't support what I think or believe, or who I prefer in a national campaign. But there's another reason, and it's the big one.

Too many people don't want to think for themselves. It's true. It starts in childhood when we want to please someone. Mom or Dad. Grandma or Grandpa. A teacher. As you get older, it includes the boy or girl or you like, his or her parents, the other kids you hang with. And it goes on to please professors in college, a boss, the in-laws. People want to be liked, so in order to please these people and many more, and to keep from having to think for yourself, you listen to others and to agree with them. I have done it myself, so I know whereof I speak.

Now, obviously, this doesn't apply to everyone. And not even to any one person at all times. But, for those who are lazy in their thinking, and have little self-esteem and little or no moral core, polls and the opinion of the people you care for become how you decide who you will vote for.

So, this person (you, my dear reader are obviously not of this lazy mindset, but I sometimes wonder about my other reader), hears that Obama is leading in the polls. This person begins to think, consciously or not, that Obama must be the better candidate because he is leading in the polls.

And those of us who do develop our own opinions hear the polls and start worrying that the campaign is not going our way. For those of you who are Obama supporters, didn't you have a tinge of concern when McCain pulled up in the polls after the Republican Convention?

I remember four years ago, when John Kerry was the Democratic candidate. I worried then that voters would listen to the polls and that Kerry would pull it out. The day of the election, I started hearing early in the afternoon that exit polls were showing Kerry ahead by a wide margin. It wasn't until I got to the polling precinct I vote at and, as I was leaving, heard someone ask for all Democrats to please come over to him. I realized that was where they were getting their exit poll information: from people asking Democratic voters who they voted for. Well, Duh! The vast majority of Democratic voters were voting for Kerry. Who else were they going to say they voted for? I was still concerned that Bush would lose the election (and sorry, but I believe that he was a better choice than John Kerry). Right now, Obama is leading in most, if not all polls. In some of the battleground states, the margin is slim, in others there is a wider margin.

But one thing I have to hold onto is that the pollsters only talk to a small number of voters. They just don't have the time or the resources to talk to all voters. I have to think that the pollsters haven't talked to committed McCain voters. That we are the Silent Majority.

I'm going to have to quit listening to the election news.

Or invest in a 55 gallon drum of Maalox.