A Note On Polls

Repeat after me. I will not read polls. I will not read polls. I will not read polls.

Okay, okay, I do read polls, but only when there's nothing else to look at. The fact is that polling about the 2008 Presidential race is completely, totally, and hopelessly irrelevant. While there is a surprising degree of attention being given to the race, the first real contest, Iowa, isn't for 9 months. Babies being conceived at this moment (all right....) will be breathing air when the caucuses are held. People holding forth about who the "frontrunner" is or who is "struggling" are talking jive. Even the state polls aren't measuring anything but name recognition, and maybe the general sense voters have about the parties and state of the country now (not 9 months from now).

The only conceivable import of the polls is their effect on fundraising, but as the first quarter shows all the principal candidates look to have plenty of cash. On the Democratic side, all 3 major candidates are going to have plenty of money to compete in the early primaries. It is probable that the top Republicans will be sufficiently funded as well. Ipso facto, the polls don't matter so much. It's like when people living in Queens got excited that the Mets were three games ahead after...three games. Whoop-de-frickin'-doo.