the biggest concerns i have re political polling are 1] how knowledgable is the person re the issue[s] of the poll and 2] does the person being polled have any inherent or stated prejudice re same? it was just the morning that one of the issues raised by the talking heads on msnbc or fox brought up the possibility that those being polled - regardless of the supposed anoniminity - did not want to appear racist and would therefore respond more favorably on questions re obama!

i took a lot of statistics and psychological tests & measures classes in college and used that course work in many years of my private sector career - so polls do not hold any credibility for me. the phrasing of questions is just one way to manipulate the data; and the selection of those to be polled [level of education, area of the country, male/female, head of household?, etc] are just a few of the ways to design the poll in order to get the results that are desired by the pollster or the entity paying for the poll.

but not a lot of people have the advantage of that knowledge and a lot of folks feel compelled to go along with the crowd or feel a need to be among the majority - the herd mentality. so polls are what they are - some will be influenced by them and others are too smart to be.