A poll to ignore

Where were you Saturday? At the lake? At the beach? Chances are, you weren't sitting around the house answering questions for a pollster. But pity the poor folks at Gallup who were obliged to continue producing their daily tracking poll.

That Obama led 48%-42% -- a 6-point lead that was his largest in the past month -- is really not surprising, when you consider who was at home to answer the phone on the Saturday after the Fourth of July. In fact, I wouldn't put much credibility in any poll taken last week at all.

This all goes back to a very basic problem of polling, the question of whether the sample is representative of the electorate.