Polls aren't the Last Word

So declares the Never Yet Melted blog:

One hears the claim a lot these days that public opinion thinks
this, and public opinion demands that, as if opinion polls conducted by news
organizations represented some sort of meaningful, objective, binding, and
official process. This sort of claim represents the grossest sort of attempt by
journalists to usurp political authority...

Opinion polls of 1000
or so of the people willing to talk to pollsters on the phone prove basically
nothing. Opinion polls are typically artfully crafted. The questions they
contain steer answers in the direction their creators desire.

Most of the antiwar crowd in Congress base their authority to pull out of Iraq on the Media-induced opinion polls. I prefer someone of conviction, like President Bush, who'll do the right thing rather than the popular consensus. But is it a consensus, or just spin?