According to the pre-election polls Sen Obama has already won.
Perhaps that is the point.
Why do we have these election polls anyway? Nothing inherently wrong with them of course. And they do measure how well a candidate is doing in such a way that the candidate might choose to adjust how s/he campaigns. But other than that what practical purpose do they serve?
Is the idea – at least with regard to the presidential election – that those who support the “losing” candidate will just give up and stay home because it is already a done deal? “Hey Sen McCain – polls show you are x points behind Sen Obama”. The proper response to which is “So what? What exactly do you see as the significance of that? What do you think I should do about that? What should my supporters do?”
Who wants to vote for the losing guy? Might there be some who will switch their vote at the last minute in order to enjoy the satisfaction of voting for the winner? “My guy won!” It might be interesting to observe how pre-election polls are handled when Republicans are ahead as well as behind, when Democrats are behind as well as ahead.
Some might read this and respond – quite intelligently – “You only kvetch about this because your guy is not doing so well”. Fair enough. I would like to think I have enough integrity that if the candidate I favor is doing very well in the polls…
I do not care all that much and encourage people who back the other candidate still to come out and vote.
Why do we make such a big deal out of pre-election polls?
