Follow the Leader: Opinion Polls and the Modern Presidents

A book by Paul Brace and Barbara Hinckley.  This was covered in a BookTV interview in 1992 (here). 

They pointed to a late-in-the-race 1992 issue in polls.  The pollsters moved from a Registered Voter to a Likely Voter model, and there was a bump for George Herbert Walker Bush, not because he was doing better, but because they changed the way they did the polls.  But the fraudulent fact that he was "polling better" became headline news in many major papers.

David Moore: Author of the Opinion Makers

Apparently, before the war in Iraq, Gallup ran an experiment.

Sure, we all know most people (70%?) supported the war.  But Gallup asked a follow up question.  They asked supporters of the war if they'd be upset if we didn't go to war, and they asked people against the war if they'd be upset if we did.  This question would be asked within a minute of asking the interviewee whether or not they supported the war.  I believe I am relaying the results of that survey correctly.  40% of Americans didn't seem to care if their preference was followed.

He also points to the leading way the corporate media (which owns most of the polls) asked about Abu Ghraib.  He says that up to four times the pollster would have to educate the respondent about the "abuses" at Abu Ghraib.  Since they used the word "abuse" four times, of course it wouldn't sound like it was actually torture.

EVIL AFOOT

Nothing against feet, mind you.  The polls with the biggest bias towards McCain are doing the most polling, and, as a result, getting the most press coverage!