ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that 1992 saw a maturing of the major media polls. Journalists in the major news organizations used polls more wisely and more cautiously than in the past. It shows that the quality of the polls and poll stories in America's newspapers, news magazines and on the air increased dramatically. The 50-State poll was easily the single most controversial polling project of the 1988 campaign. The polling record also was clear on the impact of the 1992 presidential and vice-presidential debates, which were riveting television—per haps the single most memorable feature of the last campaign. The last pre-election presidential preference polls not only predicted the right winner — not always a sure thing, as those who remember the 1980 presidential polls might recall — but the final poll numbers actually came close to the election-day results. The exit polls, too, were reasonably well behaved in 1992, with a few notable and troublesome exceptions.
