The Famous Ten Foot Poll

Someone on Facebook pointed out something to me the other day. Every single poll he'd ever answered had been on a home phone. That struck me, because I respond to political polls when I get them, and they are also always on my home phone. For a while I wanted to disconnect my home phone because spam calls were so frequent. Then I called Verizon, and they told me my bill would go up if I did that. I found some software thing to block spam and kept it.

But I don't use my home phone all that much. First of all, I'm not home that much. When I am, I tend to use my cell, and everyone who calls me uses it too. So I'm wary of polls. How can we find out what America thinks if we're calling home phones? How many of our students use home phones? How many of you use home phones? My dog Toby doesn't even use a home phone.

Another thing I notice when I'm polled is that they are most definitely pushing one side or another. Would you vote for Senator Smith if you knew he voted two hundred times to raise your taxes? What if I were to tell you he was sleeping with underage prostitutes in a Family Inn on the bad side of town? What if I were to tell you he opposed safety, and was a communist?

I don't always recall what I was asked, and perhaps I wasn't actually asked about underage prostitutes. Once it seemed they were trying to say that one candidate proposed great jobs for my community, while another one was blocking them. Later on in the questioner started talking about gambling boats in our neighborhood and I told him to go back and say I was opposed to the high-paying jobs. I'm not sure gambling is the best thing to have in this quiet neighborhood. After all, Toby is only four and I don't need any bad influences.

Here's the pont--I wonder whether we're going to be very surprised in the primaries. Any system based on calling home phones is seriously flawed. There must be a better way.