I was looking at the compiled dKos straw poll results, finding things that surprised me (and some that did not). I think polls are fascinating - I find them both encouraging and discouraging, sometimes at the same time.
Polls are slippery, ephemeral things. Polls are informative things. Polls are misleading things.
To paraphrase the Great (mis)Communicator, polls are stupid things.
The problem I'm having most with straw polls of our potential Democratic presidential candidates is that, well, I'm still pretty much undecided, dammit. Laugh at me if you will, but I think it's a pretty strong field. I could probably go at least five deep before I get to someone about whom I'd have to say, "Uh-uh, no way in hell."
I was a Clark man the last time, and I still love the General, but I can't honestly say he'd be my first choice right now. There are several I could get behind very easily, on any given day. I wish I could take the best qualities of Clark, Edwards and Obama and create a super candidate, a candidate for the ages. (Or, convince Gore to run.)
Hell, as much scorn as he draws here (from me, too), I could be satisfied with a President Joe Biden. Granted, as low as the presidential bar has been set these last six years, I'd vote for the proverbial ham sandwich if it were the Democratic nominee.
So, it occurred to me, as fluid as my preferences are right now, is there a different way we could poll the denizens of dKos? What about a straw poll where participants choose their top three, or even top five, favorite Democratic presidential nominees?
Yes, I understand that in our democracy it's one person, one vote. But seeing as how we're still in fantasyland right now, wouldn't we like to guage just how strong a certain nominee's support is, how it waxes and wanes? How strong are Obama's and Edwards's recent surges - er, escalations? (Augmentations?) Or Hillary's decline? How much of it is due to sincere support, or a "not my favorite, but probably our best hope" type of feeling? Whose support is a mile wide and an inch deep?
Most importantly, would Vilsack still get goose eggs? (I'm betting he'd get a 0.5% bounce, easy.)
What say you, Kossacks - does this sound like a good idea? And, if so, who's enough of a technogeek to create such a poll? (I'm afraid I haven't the skills - I'm an "ideas man," feeble as the ideas may be.)