Week 4-Election Post

• Today I analyzed some of the polling data related to the current presidential election in the United States, specifically looking at the Gallup Poll and the Daily Kos Tracking Poll. Having analyzed these two polls it can be clearly seen that both of these two polls show that Barack Obama is ahead of John McCain by a good 5% lead in the Gallup, while the Daily Kos shows a 10% lead for Obama. Both of these results are as of yesterday and they both show that the lead is pretty good and over the margin of error. So unless the polls are very inaccurately calculated, the people change their minds, or the candidates change their tactics, it looks like Obama would win if Election Day was tomorrow.
• Meanwhile these same polls show similar and different results in the Senate as the Gallup Poll shows that the Democrats have a lead in the Congress by 6% as of October 12th, while the Daily Kos shows a much larger lead of 13% for the Democrats as of yesterday. These results also show a country favoring the Democrats these days as people are hungry for a change in the government's administration.
• These polls also seem to me to show very accurate results which gauge the country as currently running in the liberal direction. However, I do believe that the Daily Kos may be a little skewed in its polling somehow as the lead seems to me to be a tad too democratic, but maybe that's just me. Polls are, I believe, an important part of the election process as they show the progress the candidates are making in converting random voters to their political ideology. However, I do believe that exit polls are a little too influential to be used on Election Day as they probably would change some weaker-minded people's minds.