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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
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To: mistermj who wrote (69039)1/27/2003 10:56:32 AM
From: JohnM  Read Replies (2) of 281500
 
I don't like mob rule.That is basically what you get when you start basing decisions on the poll numbers.

Hmm, that's the first time I've heard poll numbers described as "mob rule."

The problem is it really doesn't matter what you or I think about the uses of poll numbers. Not only are they here to stay; they are, at least for the moment and the foreseeable future, a critical part of every national politicians decision making apparatus. Bush just as much, perhaps more than, as Clinton. At any rate, hard to tell the difference.

It works that way because even if a given President is not attentive to the polls, his political cadre certainly is, and all the politicians of his party and, for that matter, the other party, use the polls as bargaining tactics.

It's hardly mob rule. One can think of it rather as an ongoing plebiscite on the direction and tenor of an administration. One of the few remaining serious ways democracy plays some sort of role. Until and unless we get serious campaign finance reform.
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