ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how politicians "live" and "die" by polls. It is stressed that while politicians get angry and frustrated when polls disclose what they don't like, they nonetheless rely heavily on polls to guide their political careers. The chapter focuses on the apparent addiction of politicians to polls; how they use them; and how they abuse them. The first fundamental thing to remember is that candidates use polls to try to win election to office. Basically, most respectable pollsters use very similar methods, but different kinds of polls are used by political candidates to serve their particular needs. Focus groups seem to have become more popular with political candidates, possibly because they are not totally happy with those "impersonal, superficial" polls. Polls are also used to tell candidates that they should probably fold their tents and drop out of the race. Polls help with the development of a campaign plan.
