We all know the feeling: You read the latest poll and wonder why neither you nor anyone you know feels like what the poll says everyone else feels. You ask yourself, "Why don't they ever ask me what I think?"

Politics and politicians today are largely poll-driven. Not even the President makes a move without his pollsters first quizzing focus groups and running spot polls to figure out how to spin policy. If the action is potentially unpopular, the President's handlers either abandon the proposal or obscure its true intent. Approval ratings are used as measures of performance.

Commonly published tracking polls reveal only who is winning the horse race but not the underlying reasons that voters hold certain political opinions. Erroneous poll reporting led to the 2000 Presidential election fiasco.

Are opinion polls the best measure of people's attitudes toward critical and long-standing issues? How well do people hold to their views when they're repeatedly told that the majority feels otherwise? Do polls have the power to alter voting behavior?

Do often simplistic questions reflect the full complexity of people's feelings? What are the bedrock values and beliefs that underlie our changeable opinions? How important is it to assess why people hold the views they do?

With so many polls paid for by parties with a strong interest in their outcome, how can the public interpret the results? Do opinion polls accurately determine the will of the majority or do those who finance, conduct and publicize them often (deliberately or not) manipulate rather than merely measure public sentiment?

Does poll-driven politics pander to uninformed public opinion? Or should we work harder to discover and represent the will of the people? Would more thorough and independent polling produce better policies?