Description |
xi, 388 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
Contents |
Ch. 1. The Sins of Shere Hite -- Ch. 2. America Speaks -- Ch. 3. Reinventing the Industry -- Ch. 4. The Democratic Presidential Pollsters -- Ch. 5. The Republican Presidential Pollsters -- Ch. 6. The Media Pollsters -- Ch. 7. The California Divide -- Ch. 8. The Elusive Pulse of Democracy |
Summary |
Personal advisors to the candidates, pollsters often have tremendous influence on what the top politicians say, and how they say it. Here, too, is the lively history of polling. Its increasing sophistication parallels the growing complexity of our national political scene, from its rough origins to the present day, when the pollsters--and less frequently, the voters themselves--make or break a candidate |
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On the eve of the 1992 presidential election, The Superpollsters: How They Measure and Manipulate Public Opinion in America takes a look at the people who tell us what we think. A public opinion pollster for twenty years, author David W. Moore includes profiles of Shere Hite, author of The Hite Report, the groundbreaking and controversial work on sexuality; George Gallup, the man who broke polling practice with his 1936 prediction of Hoover's defeat and FDR's victory, the man who pioneered modern polling practices; Lou Harris, JFK's pollster, the first of the television pollsters; Pat Caddell, the man responsible first for George McGovern's, and then for Jimmy Carter's, surprise capture of the Democratic presidential nomination; Robert Teeter, pollster for Nixon, Ford, and past and current pollster for President George Bush; Richard Wirthlin, pollster for Ronald Reagan; Mervin Field, head of the California Poll; and many others |
Notes |
Includes index |
Subject |
Election forecasting -- United States.
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Mass media -- United States -- Influence.
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Public opinion polls.
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Public opinion -- United States.
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LC no. |
91030396 |
ISBN |
0941423743 |
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