On Tuesday morning, Donald J. Trump boasted of what he described as widespread approval of his performance in the first presidential debate with Hillary Clinton.
Those so-called “final debate polls” consisted of readers on news sites who were asked for their opinion of who had won.
While it looked good for Mr. Trump, pollsters and some journalists offered a protest: Informal, unscientific “polls” on news sites produce junk data that does not indicate how the public actually feels, and should not be believed as an indication of — well, much of anything. CONT.
Daniel Victor, New York Times