ABSTRACT
Exit polls, tracking polls, telephone polls, deliberative polls; focus groups, stratified sampling, margin of error, survey research—this is the lingo of public opinion polling, the fastest growing segment of American politics. Public opinion pollsters have risen to the level of gurus whose advice on how to properly divine the message from polls is sought after by an ever growing number of politicians anxious to get that critical edge over their opponents. Television executives would bemoan the loss of advertising revenue, political consultancy firms might fold, and the endless peripherals of the campaign, from planes to hotels to those silly hats, would have to be limited. The election consulting firms have become one-stop shopping enterprises that provide the candidate with everything necessary for victory, from polling to speechwriting to fundraising to media relations. The nightly news remains a staple of television watching in America and the primary source of information about government and politics.
