Opinion: According to one writer, these McCain-Obama polls remind him of squash

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About this time of every election year the publication of political polls starts taking on a life of its own. Like the undead in those 1950s movies.

They’re everywhere -- who’s up among playground supervisors, why isn’t the Democrat doing better among car salesmen, dog-lovers love McCain, wine-sippers prefer Obama, not every woman votes the same?

You know, some political pros actually read polls watching football. For many of us, reading political polls is like eating yellow squash. It’s said to contain something good like Vitamin A. But it sure tastes just awful going down.

Would you say reading polls is baffling, somewhat baffling, totally baffling, beyond baffling, all of the above?

You wade through all those numbers and age groups and economic criteria and that +/- stuff and you’re not in there. You simply don’t exist. Apparently, you are unique on the planet.

And, anyway, by tonight you’ll hear about another poll that totally contradicts what you just heard at breakfast from that female TV anchor whose hair never moves.

But we can’t resist reading polls. They’re not supposed to be predictive. Just a statistical snapshot at one moment yada yada. But that’s the way we all view them -- just maybe perhaps conceivably one will predict the future on Nov. 4, by which time we’ll have forgotten it anyway.

Thank goodness for Mark Silva, one of our corporate blogging buddies over at the Swamp. Here’s how he started his latest poll story:

‘Wal-mart shoppers are with John McCain.

‘The Starbucks crowd is divided.

‘These are among the findings of a poll conducted by National Public Radio, not necessarily associated with Sam’s Club in most people’s minds, in 14 critical battleground states.’

See, he’s got us. The NPR battleground poll shows McCain with a slight advantage -- well, actually a statistical tie -- in 14 states where the 2008 presidential election most likely will be decided: McCain 46%, Barack Obama 44%.

But within the survey of those 14 states, NPR also reports finding some cultural divides: Among Wal-Mart shoppers surveyed, McCain is the favorite of 58%, Obama 33%. The effect of Sarah Palin, who does her own grocery shopping back home, maybe at Wal-mart? (See photo.)

For the rest of Mark’s tale, click here. (Warning: He does have all the stat stuff too.)

--Andrew Malcolm

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