Is there any INDEPENDENT polling being conducted?

[MetaTrope]

I've been wondering this for years and years. All the "polls" we see regarding presidential races either come out of mainstream news networks or their hired help. They seem the perfect tool to help in theft of the elections.

So are there surveys being conducted by anyone not behooven to their corporate overlords? I'm thinking, surely there must be some academic studies being conducted somewhere that would glory in showing a huge variance against the MSM results?

[Eric J in MN]

1. "The Daily Kos" sometimes does polling.

Mostly of Connecticut and whether the people there regret Joe Lieberman.

[polichick]

2. I'd love to see the Obama campaign internal polling!

[depakid]

4. Or McCain's

Accurate research is time consuming and expensive. Campaigns spend tons of money to get it right- and they keep those results held tightly to their chests.

Most of what's out there for public consumption is crap- kind of like network TV in America is crap. At best, you might be able to glean some trends over time from certain polls- but anything beyond that is a fool's errand, and simply fodder for political masturbation.

[TheWraith]

3. There's plenty of polls out of universities, particularly Quinnipiac.

They don't tend to vary that much from the professional polling firms. Weaknesses in the polls are usually due to problems with the sampling and/or the statistical model, not bias by the pollster, with a few exceptions.