Real clear polls

This is the latest from Mary on polls. What I would say, especially thinking back to 1988, is that the public relationship with polls is changing. Even as recently as '88, it was more of a top-down one-way relationship. Gallup (or somebody) did the polls, and you read about them. But today there are more polling operations and -- more importantly -- several layers of poll analysis.
In fact, this clip on Kasey's site would have represented an unthinkable about of thinking about polls for the average person on 1988.
There's a lot of averaging, as with RCP.
There's a clearer understanding, after 2000, that state polls matter more.
There's more of an attempt to find out what campaign internals say.