Junk polls
By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Sep 09, 2004
Pro-life Americans have been mostly buoyed by the results of recent presidential-preference polls, which show Pres. Bush increasing his lead on Sen. Kerry.
Sorry to burst the bubble, but those polls are irrelevant.
It's important to remember that, for all practical purposes, there is not one presidential contest in November, but fifty separate winner-take-all contests. It's entirely possible that Bush could win the overall popular vote, and lose the White House in the Electoral College.
In fact, according to the New York Times and a Zogby poll analysis for the Wall Street Journal, if the election(s) were held today, that's exactly what would happen.
Fortunately the election is not held today, and momentum does count, so the latest poll numbers do mean something. But the poll numbers that really matter are not the national figures, but the numbers from teetering states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida, and Missouri.
Phil Lawler has been a Catholic journalist for more than 30 years. He has edited several Catholic magazines and written eight books. Founder of Catholic World News, he is the news director and lead analyst at CatholicCulture.org. See full bio.
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