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Recent polls find that exactly 50% of Americans comprise half of it’s population. Hmm, what a useful survey;-)

When you poll people who are not informed about the details of an issue the poll is invalid. The networks misinform the public about an issue and then they turn around and poll the same misinformed public on how they feel about that issue? Perhaps they should poll the people on their knowledge of the issue first and then poll them about how they feel. They will never do this because it would expose they fact that they are misinforming their viewers.

A few points here.

• When did news polls become relevant? The “News” networks “ASK US” things like “Who is a greater threat to world peace, Sadam or Bush?” ASK US??? Shouldn’t they be TELLING US??? Shouldn’t they be giving us enough facts to help us come to an informed conclusion?
• Opinion or clairvoyance? It is one thing to poll people on how they feel regarding an issue, but the new trend is to poll people about how they feel about the future. It is one thing to ask how we feel about invading Iraq; this is a valid question. What purpose does it serve to ask how long we think the invasion will last? What does that show? On any given day take a look a Wolf Blitzer’s polls. Most of them are prime examples of these childish questions. Some however, are a bit more, shall we say, intelligent.
• Completely invalid questions. They ask us if we support the war, yet the public is so misinformed that their opinion is irrelevant. Ask first if they know that the US used forged documents as evidence of Iraq attempting to acquire nuclear material. Ask next if they know that Colin Powell cited a 12 year old thesis, written by a student who had never been to Iraq, as the basis for his intelligence during his 1^st presentation to the UN Security Council and that it was not reported in the US is because we conveniently went to code Orange and only reported about that. Then ask if they understand that Bush has no evidence on any connections between Al Quaeda and Iraq, and that almost the entire world intelligence community feels that there are no links. Then, if they know all of that, ask them if they support the war. That is a valid poll. Current polling is very misleading. Continued...click next.

• The Importance of Understanding Polls, Lying 101 - They wield the media as their weapon, making the absurd seem logical and trying to convince you to focus on things that will nudge you to vote for the current disastrous reign of the GOP. One weapon the media wields so effectively are polls.
• If Bush Was Popular, We Wouldn't Need Polls to Convince Us
• Political Polls - Allencountydemocrats.org prepared this fantastic reference on politial polls.
• Dr. James J. Zogby: US bends statistical data on Iraqi surveys - Early in President Bush's recent public relations campaign to rebuild support for the US war effort in Iraq, Vice-President Cheney appeared on "Meet the Press." Attempting to make the case that the US was winning in Iraq, Cheney made the following observation: - One of the questions it asked is: "If you could have any model for the kind of government you'd like to have" - and they were given five choices - "which would it be?" The US wins hands down. If you want to ask them do they want an Islamic government established, by 2:1 margins they say no, including the Shia population.  - If you ask how long they want Americans to stay, over 60 per cent of the people polled said they want the US to stay for at least another year. - But the AEI's "spin" and the Vice-President's use of their "spin" created a faulty impression of the poll's results and, therefore, of the attitudes of the Iraqi people. - So while technically Cheney might say that "over 60 per cent (actually it's 59 per cent) … want the US to stay at least another year," an equally correct observation would be that 65.5 per cent want the US and Britain to leave in one year or less.
• Parties Spinning the Polls: Who's Right, Who's Wrong? - It's one year out from the presidential election and both parties are furiously spinning the polls. Democrats are emphasizing polls they say show signs of increasing weakness in President Bush's reelection effort. Republicans counter that, historically, Bush is in a safe place and that his prospects have dimmed little. - Who's right and who's wrong? The answer, as it often is in Washington, depends on how you look at it.
• Spin clouds truth in polls of Iraqis - Secretary Paul Wolfowitz has said, "The polls do show that most Iraqis want us to stay as long as necessary." - The Washington Post story pointed out that the same poll found that 47 percent of residents thought they were worse off at the moment, compared to only 33 percent of residents who thought they were better off. Nearly everyone (94 percent) said Baghdad was more dangerous now than before the invasion. The United States cleaned up one mess, but has replaced it with chaos of its own.
• Relying on Phonies - What If the Problem with Phone Polls is that They are Phone Polls?- Obviously past telephone-survey presidential polls have accurately predicted election outcomes, but Americans' social interactions via telephones may be evolving in ways that render past telephonic sampling techniques unreliable.
• Manipulating the Public - The Problem with Public Opinion Polls - Instead of really focusing on people's opinions, polls focus on the action of voting in a context that is a false hypothetical -- if the "election were being held today," when we know it isn't. Pollsters do that, I suppose, because they assume should be predicting how the election will turn out, rather than giving a clear picture of the thinking of the U.S. public.