Everything You Need to Know About Reading the Polls

John Cardillo, the president and CEO of PsyID, a company specializing in actionable social media intelligence and analytics, appeared on The Glenn Beck Program Wednesday to explain what Americans should know when reading the polls.

Namely, take them with a grain of salt, and there may actually a better way to gauge public opinion. Sometimes, the inaccuracies in polls are even intentional.

"You said to me, 'I'm doing some polling for the GOP, and they want me to change things to try to change the outcome,'" Beck told Cardillo. "Am I getting that right?"

"Yeah," Cardillo responded. "There are certain things that if we skew what we do a certain way, the outcome will predict what they want."

Dan Cardillo of PsyID speaks with Glenn Beck on Nov. 6, 2013. (Photo: TheBlaze TV)

Cardillo said that what his company does is far more accurate than traditional polling because it's more of a "fly on the wall" approach than "somebody calling you up with ten questions that are designed to elicit a certain response from you to fit an agenda."

"What we do, you have to look at what social media analytics is..." he explained, "you're in a big party and you're listening to every clique chatting about things that they care about, that they're interested in, that they're engaged in, in a very frank, casual way."

Rather than ask questions about which the phrasing and sample population is vitally important, their company simply observes what people are saying on social media forums without prompting.

And Cardillo said that the results of his company's research represent a far cry from what the mainstream media is reporting. For instance, while many say they Tea Party is on its dying breath, Cardillo said they found the opposite.

Regarding Texas Senator Ted Cruz, he added, 66% of non-affiliated voters see the man favorably.

"Even the people that don't like him, respect him. Even in that 34% [that see him negatively], they say, 'Look, we oppose everything Ted Cruz supports, but we respect the guy's honesty'...And his supporters simply love the guy."

64% of non-party affiliated voters see the Second Amendment positively, and 82% see an increase in the debt ceiling negatively, he added.

"You really are on the verge of winning, you just have to know stuff like this," Beck said.

Cardilllo said the major problem for the Tea Party and small government conservatives is the messaging.

"There are great candidates out there," he said. "There are great ideas ... but they're packaged very poorly. They're marketed even worse, and they're funded even more horribly."

But that doesn't mean they're not making any traction. Cardillo said that when he recently reviewed tens of thousands of topics being discussed on social media, he was surprised to find Glenn Beck at number 29, and other small government topics nearby. He said FreedomWorks was roughly 2 or 3 on the list under Beck, while the GOP was around 20 to 30 under.

Beck repeated his assurance to the audience that they are "winning," even if it may not seem like it.

"[And] independent verification helps the psyche of people," he noted.

Complimentary Clip from TheBlaze TV

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