Okay, does that sound a little harsh? Consider that out of 23 polling firms measured by Nate Silver and having at least 5 polls in the final 3 weeks of the campaign, they came in as the 23rd most accurate. And, to be fair to the 22nd, there was a quite a bit of gap between them. How bad? An average error of 7.2 points toward Romney! Other polling firms had high average errors but they sometimes erred in the both directions. Not Gallup.
Further, Gallup has been sucking for a long time. Here's Nate:
It was one of the best-known polling firms, however, that had among the worst results. In late October, Gallup consistently showed Mr. Romney ahead by about six percentage points among likely voters, far different from the average of other surveys. Gallup’s final poll of the election, which had Mr. Romney up by one point, was slightly better, but still identified the wrong winner in the election. Gallup has now had three poor elections in a row. In 2008, their polls overestimated Mr. Obama’s performance, while in 2010, they overestimated how well Republicans would do in the race for the United States House.
Three elections in a row is no fluke. And since the best predictor of the future is the past, and since Gallup has shown no inclination to stop sucking, I think we must assume they will continue to suck. Really, anything short of an apology for completely ridiculous polling should lead to some kind of banishment from the public dialogue.