Public opinion polls are useful if a politician uses them only to learn approximately what the people are thinking, so that he can talk to them more intelligently. The politician who sways with the polls is not worth his pay. And I believe the people eventually catch up with the man who merely tells them what he thinks they want to hear.

Richard M. Nixon (1913-1994) American politician, writer, US President (1967-74)

Six Crises, ch. 3 (1962)