THE POLLS & THE PUBLIC.

Why should the polls be believed? An organization collects data in person, on the phone, on the Internet and/or by any other means, and then coordinates that information into an analytical result as being the popular or final perception of the people they happen to have polled. Fine.

However, what is actually the deciding factor? Is it the president or the CEO of the organization, who makes the decision that what he or she prefers can be put out for public consumption, or a group of analysts, with nobody knowing their qualifications and political beliefs, get the privilege to act as mediators between the organization and the general public? Nobody can tell.

Each and every single day, there are polls by media and pollster companies of all kinds; Universities have departments that gather information, and they all count the end product in numbers, from 0% through 100%. Then they announce the outcome to the rest of the population.

How can the public know, whether they are being truthful or falsifying the figures that they are making known, or that the percentages they are giving out are not to suit their own whim and caprice?

These organizations can misdirect public opinion at any time they want, because no one can check their facts as being truly factual. In other words, they have the recipients of these polls at the twirl of their little finger or pinky; and any figures they come up with; any figures at all, will be accepted.

The latest being businessman Herman Cain, a conservative candidate running in the Republican Party race for the nomination, beating President Barack Obama in the polls, if a general election is held today. The media and the pollsters have been throwing all kinds of percentages around, in favor of Cain.

Where they canvassed the people that gave them the interviews or answered their questions could be anybody's guess.

Yet, the news and headlines are everywhere, that "Herman Cain edges Obama in polls". That happens to be the topic of the day for all the media outlets; but as the saying goes, "Don't believe everything you read in the papers", who in all honesty can say that the sources of these polls are not a bunch of lying experts, who want to fool the American public?

One cannot assume outright that the pollsters and media pundits are all liars, and that what they are saying is untrue; but there is also the slight chance that they are, or somebody is, taking the people for a ride; and if so, then that piece of news is only to bamboozle readers, viewers and listeners alike.

Nobody is presuming that Cain cannot win an election against Obama. In an election, anything can happen; but the idea goes beyond the pale of sanity, that organizations will gather such information at this present instance, when Cain is, as they say, high in the polls in the Republican race.

That may be true; but the perception of him beating Obama in the 2012 general election is pure speculation. Many doubt the calculations in his 999 tax plan, which is still under scrutiny; as people are searching to know what that (999) really means. Will his calculations add up or not? That has got a big question mark at the end of it.

Until then, the polls can be wrong, and therefore, people must rest assured; as that is also possible (of the polls being wrong). Besides, their collective prediction is too premature.