Public opinion

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Public opinion is everything. Without it, nothing can succeed. With it, nothing can fail...The first task of statesmanship is not legislation but the molding of that opinion from which all legislation flows. ---Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln wrote these words nearly 150 years ago, long before the news media, as we know it, became an entertainment medium, long before the practice of "push-polling" became prevalent. That said, much of Lincoln's point remains valid. And those who dismiss the reliance on polling should think twice about their own biases. Lee Bockhorn writes in the Wall Street Journal saying this:

...our reliance on polling has truncated the deliberative process of republican government. Constant polling rewards "messages" that appeal to voters' emotions rather than their reason...

As if! First of all, I think it unwise to focus on intellect versus emotion when appealing to voters; this is a false choice. All successful politicians will tell you this. In fact, when you have two candidates running against each other and one is the candidate of emotion (Clinton, Bush 43) and the other is the candidate of logic and reason (Dole and Gore) we know who wins. Polling is neither good nor bad any more than a hammer or a stapler is good or bad; they are tools to be used to get the job done. Use them properly and you will gain an advantage. Although Bockhorn chooses to discount polling per se, he does ask a good question:

Where should our leaders look for wisdom? Whom should they seek to please?...Statesmen like Churchill and Lincoln are teachers who remind their fellow citizens of first principles, not misty visions. They serve not by giving us merely what we want but persuading us to want the right things--to think of the public interest, rightly understood.

The right things. Easier said than done. The latest example of this difficulty is George W. Bush's recent effort to become the President of Iowa.