Should Kerry be a slave to the polls?

[Feanorcurufinwe]

Poll question: Should Kerry be a slave to the polls?

Several aides said that Mr. Kerry is the least interested in polling data of any politician they have known, rarely reviewing drafts of questions as Mr. Clinton did or calling for overnight updates like former Vice President Al Gore. But he is deeply involved in tiny details on policy, and spends hours fiddling with speech drafts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/13/politics/campaign/13TRAI.html?ei=5062&en=2bb4cf5fbbfa9558&ex=1087704000&partner=GOOGLE&pagewanted=all&position=

Should Kerry be a slave to polls like Gore was, or should he continue to base his campaign on his principles and what he really believes?

[Name removed]

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[Feanorcurufinwe]

4. Kick for visiblity

I'd like my poll to receive a few votes, but if it is buried in the forum I won't get a representative sample.

[Cocoa]

2. I like Kerry's attitude toward polling

in the primaries, I favored Gep and Kucinich before Kerry, but one thing I really liked was how he responded to questions about polls. He was very sincerly disdainful of polls, and on a lot of occasions nearly mocked the person asking the question. Off the top of my head, I can recall Anderson Cooper, Chris Matthews, and Ted Koppel, but there were others.

[Nicholas_J]

6. Kerry repeatedly states that he pays no attention to polls

And runs as if he has to win every state regardless of what the polls indicate. This attitude was very key to the reversal of the situation in late 2003. Just a month before the first caucus, Kerry was running 40 points behind Dean. Kerry takes nothing for granted, and the history of his campaigns for the Senate have always run that way.

[swinney]

5. Ignore Polls Get a super message

Americans are not intelligent. They sway like balloons in windstorm.

A strong message A few indisputable items to promote.

It is the Middle Class, stupid.

It is the rich eating all the pie, stupid.

It is America as a loved nation, stupid.

It is about who cares for all the people,stupid.

[Nicholas_J]

7. The facts contradict this.

In fact this election season, there is very little swing in voter choice. Democrats are pretty much staying solidly Democrat, in fact far more than the usual degree of cross party voting which on average has been about ten percent for Democrats who decide to vote Republican, and about the same for Republicans who decide to vote Democrat. This time around the percentages are a lot smaller for Democrats who will vote Republican, these percentages running less than five percent in all polls that track such data, while the percentages of Republicans who state they are likely to vote Democrat this time around is lower than the usual ten percent figure, but greater than the crossover Democrats with the figures running between 6 and 8 percent of polled Republicans. A recent polls done by Bob Novak of registered Republicans indicate that twenty percent of Republicans are not comitted to voting for Bush, which does not indicate that all of them will vote for Kerry, but ithis figure is enormous in the case of the incumbent being Republican. By and large, the only thing that is causing the swing in polls from state to state and in a number of national polls is the very small percentage of undecided voters, who are coming in at something like 5 to 7 percent of all voters, and indications still indicate that by the last week or so of the campaign season, anywher from 70 to 85 percent of these voters turn against the incumbent at the end.

So stupid or not, most of the have already decided who they are going to vote for, and there is little indication that those who have already decided will change their choice between now and November.

This makes things very good for Kerry, because most pollsters adn political analysts have him winning in November because of the trends noted above. Bush is in a bad place, as he has to try to sway a group that has historically turned against the person in office, and all indications are that the sross party voting during this election will be the smallest in recent history.

[Scoopie]

8. I'm glad he's not

or he might make the wrong decisions regarding his VP and cabinet.

[union_maid]

9. Not yet, anyway

There might come a time when he needs to know where he stands in given states, but that's later on anyway. He's more aware than anyone that all that can change on a dime at this point. He's very smart. I have more respect for him with ever article I read.

[IronLionZion]

10. Policy is good but he better not micro-manage his administration

like Carter did. That really bogs things down.

[VIHMH5L50P]

11. whatever raises his numbers is worth doing more of

hey, I don't care what he does as long as his numbers go up and bu-shit's go down. Lately that has been happening so I'm not complaining. See my point?

[VIHMH5L50P]

12. Carter was a man with a lot of baggage.

All his problems weren't due to micromanaging. Some people micromanage well. Nobody likes it but sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't but other factors contribute to the failure too. Like Billy Carter, remember? (and Jimmy said Billy was the smartest one of them all, including him). I know if I had Billy as a distraction I couldn't get much done either.

[AgadorSparticus]

13. i don't even think DU'ers should be a slave to polls.

we should just buckle down and do our political work. stay focused. write letters to editors. debunk bush to our friends and family. volunteer. donate to the kerry campaign. etc.