Senate Candidate Wants to Ban Polling

Masker writes "This is just too funny. Alan Keyes, the Republican candidate for Senate in Illinois, who is running against Democrat Barack Obama, wants to ban political polling for 'a certain period' before the election, since such polls are 'manipulative and degrading and damaging to our political system.' Could his opinion be influenced by a recent poll that shows Keyes trails by 45 percentage points behind Obama?" Could be. But it could also be influenced by the fact that polls are often wrong; they influence how people vote (people are less likely to vote for someone who "doesn't have a chance"), and polls get reported on more than issues, which can't be good for anyone except the pollsters and whoever happens to be leading the polls.

Comments

Why stop there

[eyeball]

Ban voting. It also can also affect election outcome. Unless you live in Florida.

great idea!

[Tumbleweed]

I'm ALL FOR banning Senate candidates. Excellent!

Oh, wait...

Re:Commentary

[Anonymous Coward]

Does anyone else find the fact that almost a third of this post is commentary?

Find the fact that a third of it is commentary, what? Find it amusing? Find it odd? Find it strange? Find it arousing? (No, I don't want an answer to that.)

Ban Polling?

[Polo]

...but they can't do that.

That's the primary way we're going to get CowboyNeal elected!

someone wanted to organize a vote on that issue

[dario_moreno]

but gave up because the polls showed that the bill would not pass.

Re:polls are often wrong?

[Anonymous Coward]

It doesn't matter if polls are right or wrong. The fact is that 79% of people love polls.