In a new Gallup Poll, via politcalwire.com, we find that Hillary trounces the competition in their latest poll. Hillary has 39% support compared to Barack Obama's 19%, John Edwards 15% and Al Gore's 14%. Al Gore has stated repeatedly that he is not running for president. All other candidates, including Wesley Clark and Al Sharpton, neither of whom are running, are in single digits.
When presented with the undefined choices of ex-Major League catcher, Johnny Edwards, and the musician Jonathan Edwards, who wrote the early-1970s hit "Sunshine", respondents somehow split evenly between all 3 Edwards, even though ex-Senator John Edwards of North Carolina is the only declared candidate.
When respondents were asked which Barack Obama they supported of a hypothetical experiment where Senator Obama was cloned 3 times, and without being told which number was the real Barack Obama, they split evenly between the numbers 1 through 4, thus lowering Obama's percentage of support in this poll.
When will pollsters either stop including undeclared candidates in their polls, or poll declared candidates seperately? Does it not occur to them that even though voters may pick Al Gore, if he's not on the ballot, they'll vote for someone else, thus rendering their poll useless?