[classicman]

Can you prove them right or wrong? That is my point. With respect to polls, particularly those about opinions, is is virtually impossible to prove them right or wrong.
As far as trusting the professionals - lets see how well did the bankers or wall street guru's do last year?

Polls are fine and have, in my opinion, a very limited purpose when it comes to opinions. Most of those peoples opinions are probably based upon the local news soundbites anyway and there is so much more to what is going on with this specific situation to say that a poll can really have any credibility.