Friday, January 11, 2008

The Obsession with Polls Misses the Point

I can understand why the media obsesses so over the polls, especially when the polls blow it as badly as they did in New Hampshire. It's their job to get these things right, and they got it wrong. It is also understandable why the political advisers and the remainder of the staffs of the candidates would care. It's their job to know where the candidates need to spend time and money, and I'm sure some of them lost their jobs over it.

But there is little reason the rest of us should care. They screwed up a prediction of something we would have found out about anyway. Had they taken no polls at all, guess what? Nothing would have changed. Yet here we have the media going bonkers and talking about polls polls polls, and the fiasco in New Hampshire. Sorry guys, the fiasco was all yours, and the rest of us really couldn't care less. Get back to talking about the pros and cons of the candidates, and the relevant issues of the elections, and save the self-indulgent wound-licking for your private meetings. No one else cares, and in spending so much time lamenting your private concerns, you've forgotten your jobs.

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