Originally Posted by Relentless

Polls are designed to drive traffic to media outlets. They need the polls to be close and they need the polls to create a narrative that keeps people tuning in to their newscasts. If a poll said Obama was clearly in the lead, or Romney was clearly in the lead... nobody would watch CNN. Pollsters are funded by media outlets. The media doesn't care who wins, as long as it remains close (i.e. 'within the margin of error' of the poll and represents a back and forth 'race').

After the campaign is over NOBODY will go back and see which polls were inaccurate 3 months or 5 months before election day. Even if someone did, the pollsters would just claim public opinion must have changed a lot in the interim. They have zero accountability and are just in it to drive traffic.

I'm amazed webmasters who drive traffic for a living with polls, hot or not content, controversial publicity stunts etc can not see political polls for exactly what they are... traffic tools.