Placebo cures by polling for our national ills

Polling is invaluable tool in a campaign where time is compressed.

Polling, as a mechanism to lead a nation as this president does, is a cheap finger to the wind to gauge what is popular.

It is a poor way to lead a nation which is what is happening to our nation under the Obama Administration because Obama's handlers are leading Obama which means they are the true leaders behind the child throne.

As defined through action by this administration, this government fiat through an advertising tool which is used as a bludgeon because it is what an informed populous wants. Unfortunately the populous is not only uninformed as to who President Obama is, the populous is also uninformed about the purposely made complicated matters vexing our nation. It as the administration and Congress wants it.

An ignorant electorate is far easier to rule.

Inside Obama's polling operation
As President Barack Obama works to sell the American people on a sweeping agenda of domestic spending and policy changes, he’s relying on three men who have gone through neither Senate confirmation nor cable news spin cycles.

Data from pollsters Joel Benenson and Paul Harstad has become increasingly important to shaping the White House’s message as the crucial battle over the president’s budget intensifies.

“The pace [of polling] is picking up,” said one source familiar with the data.

In addition, David Binder, a San Francisco-based focus group expert, also has been traveling the country taking the national temperature on issues like energy and health care, others close to the White House said.

Presidents have long pooh-poohed polls while privately conducting them. Jimmy Carter had Patrick Caddell, Reagan had Dick Wirthlin, and Bill Clinton relied on Mark Penn for weekly, personal briefings on the numbers.

George W. Bush, reacting against Clinton’s perceived reliance on polls, sharply cut back the practice, according to spending tallies. His main pollster was the no-profile Jan van Lohuizen, but Karl Rove still conducted six major surveys a year, a senior Bush White House staffer said, and employed an aide to pore over the growing pile of publicly available data.

Obama, too, has denounced polling, promising in one high-profile Iowa speech to lead “not by polls, but by principle,” even though he employed six campaign pollsters.

Would the visionary leaders we have been graced with in the past please wake the politically bludgeoned populous to say simply, "This isn't leadership. It is a bitter placebo enveloped in jelly to make you feel maternal love feels your pain and has a cure when in fact you are getting sicker."