… Christie certainly got my attention when he mentioned polls in his speech on Tuesday night. Here’s what he said:
“There’s only one thing missing now. Leadership. It takes leadership that you don’t get from reading a poll. You see, Mr. President — real leaders don’t follow polls. Real leaders change polls. …”
… By “change polls” I assume Christie was implying that if elected representatives do what they personally think best, even if it goes against the will of the majority of the people as measured by polls, the majority of the people will ultimately come to realize the error of their ways and change their attitudes about the issue.
And there is the issue of the verb “follow” as well. When Christie says “real leaders don’t follow polls” does he mean that they ignore polls and by inference ignore the attitudes and will of the people? [cont.]
Frank Newport, Gallup