Poll This

It's a mixture of stubbornness and general pleasure in scoffery (possibly not a word, but I'm going to use it anyway) that keeps me from trusting political polls. I have never been polled. Who is being polled? I would like to know who the people are that become the percentages and decimal points recited dutifully by the major news outlets as though they are facts. Such as: the news that Schwarzenegger has gained an 8 point lead in the race against Phil Angelides. From SF Gate:
"The poll, taken July 10-23, shows Schwarzenegger leading Angelides 45 to 37 percent among likely voters in California, with 3 percent favoring other candidates and 15 percent still undecided."

I would like to know whether this poll was taken in the area of southern California. My expertise in the sociology of southern Californian residents is quite extensive, I lived among these people for many years and I believe these numbers are uncannily similar to the overall percentages of the total categorized population break-down of assholes:idiots:weirdos:conscionable citizens in southern California.

If the polling area was indeed limited to the barren and parched wasteland we call So Cal, (new information taken into consideration, I hypothetically place the dividing line of the two main areas of California slightly north of Tulare County) I believe the results of the poll would be more accurately represented like this:

Table 1: Analysis of the General Population of Southern California and Corresponding Political Opinions

ASSHOLES 45%
IDIOTS 15%
WEIRDOS 3%
CONSCIONABLE CITIZENS 37%

We're 6 weeks away from the election, and Phil's camp says it's not over yet. Who cares if 45% of SoCal residents are assholes and plan on voting for Schwarzenegger? He's spent $30 million so far and he still can't hit 50%. New pro-Phil tv ads will be coming out, plus a televised debate between them in which Schwarzenegger will likely put his foot firmly in his mouth as usual, not to mention the resurrection of the super-organization of unions called Alliance For A Better California. The Alliance had originally formed in response to Schwarzenegger's disastrous special election last year as a sort of Fellowship of the Ring that would protect each other while campaigning to throw Ah-nuld's neocon initiatives into the fires of Mount Doom. The Fellowship of the Ring, sorry, I mean the Alliance For A Better California, has joined together once again in a full campaign to unseat Schwarzenegger. So on top of the tv ads and other campaigning paid for by the Democratic Party of California and Angelides' own fund, AFABC will launch their own multimedia campaign with the backing of the "Labor" --hundreds of thousands of union employees. They are the constituency with the greatest understanding of the reasons why Arnold Schwarzenegger never has, and NEVER will, be good for California. If I may bluster, it's preposterous that anyone would be fooled by his sudden interest in passing legislation over global warming and genecide in Darfur; if he's so "moderate," then why has he still said NOTHING regarding his stance on the biggest issue this election year: the war in Iraq? And speaking of global warming, has everyone forgotten that he is singly responsible for the emergence of the carbon-spewing machine known as the Humvee as a commercial automobile (it's not even an automobile, it's just plain appalling) now driven by thousands (see: table 1) of people ?

Here's what Phil's camp says: "The fact is that Phil Angelides is a good candidate. What he lacks in relative star power, he more than makes up for in substance and commitment to Democratic values and sensible, winnable policy change."

Finally, something I agree with.