Word: polling
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Dates: during 1960-1960
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...fortunes of the presidential candidates, according to the Gallup poll, are fluctuating as madly as cardiograms of young lovers in the Tunnel of Love. Last month, right after the G.O.P. Convention. Gallup reported that Dick Nixon had overtaken and had a commanding lead over his opponent, Jack Kennedy-50% to 44%-in the hearts of his voting countrymen. The poll caused jitters at Kennedy headquarters, some doubts amidst the jubilation in Nixon's camp, and considerable skepticism in the ranks of Washington commentators. Last week, a scant fortnight after his first poll, Gallup announced that Kennedy had moved...
...from the Farmer. The liberal New York Post was almost inevitably reminded of a quip made by Humorist Goodman Ace: "Public opinion polls reach everyone in America, from the farmer in his field right up to the President of the United States, Thomas E. Dewey." But to Tennessee's Democratic Senator Albert Gore, Gallup's 1960 post-convention poll was downright sinister. The polls, cried Gore, are "almost meaningless and in many instances misleading," but they still have an "entirely unjustified" influence on elections. With that, Gore hinted at an investigation of the pollsters by the Senate Privileges...
...Gallup, perhaps the unkindest cuts of all came from some of his fellow pulse takers. Doorbell-ringing Pollster Sam Lubell wrote scornfully of "other polls" which "maintain that the presidential 'undecided' vote is as low as 6% of the total." In his own election canvass, said Lubell, he had found that no less than 18% of the electorate had yet to make up its mind about how to vote in November. And Syndicated Columnist Joseph Alsop devoted an entire column to criticizing Gallup's methods. "In the newspaper trade," wrote Alsop, "it is usually considered bad form...
...gist of Alsop's criticism was that Gallup had taken voters who were merely "leaning" toward one candidate or another and had placed them in the "decided" column. Wrote Alsop: "All this is not intended to suggest that Dr. Gallup has been cooking his poll. Yet the facts "have to be faced that this poll has become a fairly major extra-legal institution of American politics. For this reason, such things as unannounced transformations of 'leaners' into 'decideds' do not serve the public interest...
...Dangerous, Damaging." Last week, however, Pollster Gallup had at least one cause for satisfaction: Poll Taker Alsop's own methods were under fire. A longtime believer in bloc voting, Alsop recently reported on surveys that he had made in New York of the Jewish, Negro and Catholic votes. Catholics, he said, were not committed to Kennedy, but "if Kennedy can just give the impression that he knows how to deal with Fidel Castro, he will solve all his problems." The Democrats "ought to do well with the Negro voters this time, unless our 52-voter sample was seriously misleading...