Survey says: The 2008 presidential race will go down as the most polled and attitude-checked presidential election ever, further evidence that the White House race has become a spectator sport -- replete with a daily box score.
The number of presidential surveys taken in states around the nation this year -- 935 and counting -- has soared 70 percent compared with 2000, when Florida's White House-deciding election underscored the need for battleground state surveys, according to a pollster.com survey.
Florida occupies a unique place in the polling: It's the largest swing state in the nation and carries 27 Electoral College votes -- 10 percent of the total needed to win the presidency. It's a must-win for Republican John McCain because Democrat Barack Obama likely has California and New York.
With The Miami Herald's poll predicting a neck-and-neck race, the numbers add to the buzz heading into the candidates' first real debate on Friday.
''Everybody loves a horse race. And we've got one,'' said Charles Franklin, a University of Wisconsin political science professor and co-founder of pollster.com, a website devoted to polling.
There are so many polls that it can be tough for a voter to sort them out. In addition to the increase in state-based presidential polls since 2000, Franklin calculated that the number of state and national polls together has increased from 846 eight years ago to 1,291 now.
Although that's just a slight rise since 2004, there's also the sheer volume of discussion to take into account on TV, blogs and websites like pollster.com, realclearpolitics.com and fivethirtyeight.com.
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People may not believe in the Holy Bible, but there are fundamental truths going on since the beginning of our existence. We don't know exactly who to blame for the economic crisis. (It's probably government and citizens.)We better wake up because foreign markets now have their hands in the American pie. China, Russia and other countries.
Proverbs 22:7
The rich rules over the poor,
And the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.
Posted by: Wake up and spit out the coolaid | September 22, 2008 at 11:47 AM