The president and the press love to cite national polls as the authority on how Americans see the issues. How many times have you heard about the “90 percent of Americans” who support background checks or the “overwhelming majority” who support a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants?
But, for members of Congress, national polls matter very little. What matters is how that issue plays at home. …
More important, a national poll frames an issue even-handedly and with unbiased, antiseptic language. That’s not the way that hot button issues are discussed by regular people or framed by the increasingly polarized social media. People don’t know what the Affordable Care Act is, but they sure as heck have heard of “Obamacare.” [cont.]
Amy Walter, Cook Political Report