To fully understand the controversy behind public opinion polling, we must first look at the arguments enveloping this political modus operandi. Polling, though deemed an accurate way of measuring public opinion, is not necessarily an impartial device. Many have dubbed polls controversial and shrouded by obfuscation. Why exactly are these polls considered an blurred assessment of public opinion? First, polling is an extremely vague measurement of public attitude. For example, polls are often taken from only a small region of a large population, reflecting the views of those individuals exclusively and not necessarily the entirety of the population. Although there might be an ideological consistency in one concentrated region, those opinions are not necessarily coherent with those in a different region. In addition, polls are often skewed towards the views of the individual who is conducting the poll

In opposition to the statement that polls are controversial, some consider polls not only beneficial, but valuable to our society. These individuals believe that polls are beneficial in that they can assist politicians in their course of action because they can get a better idea of what the John Q. Public is thinking and use the results from the polls to form policies that will benefit the people based on their needs. By getting a general census as to what the basic population needs, they can easily tailor policies to fulfill those needs. Public opinion polls are also used to help target certain people and to maximize a candidates potential votes by allowing the candidate to understand his district and what people like and what they do not like in the public policy area. A perfect example of this beneficial polling can be seen in the policies of the Clinton Administration. President Clinton not only used polling to get a implication of what the people were thinking, but to form his policies and shape his opinions on certain legislature. The polling proved beneficial to Clinton, for the reason that he could make his executive decisions based on what the public sought and not based exclusively on what his advisor

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