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I don't care if Obama has a 10 point lead or McCain has a 10 point lead in polls ... and I have said this the entire time during the election process no matter which canidate has been leading (so please do not question my motives for posting).
So, why do I feel this way? Until someone shows me how randomly calling 1200 or so people (on any given day) can accurately, and without question, represent the feelings of a whole country or state (on that same any given day) ... I refuse to take polls seriously. I know that they call an almost equal number of dems, repubs, and indies. I have taken evaluation courses and I have taken statistics ... and I know the basic theory of random sampling. But I don't buy it - because even with a proposed "margin of error", there is always the consistent chance that many of the random people who are called carry different opinions (whether major or slight differences) than the random people who were not called. In my opinion, 1200 people can never completely and accurately represent more than ... uh, that same 1200 people.
Can anyone put me in my place? (and I wouldn't mind it, as maybe then I'd have more faith in polling)
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