Will 2007 Be Good or Bad? Don't Check the Polls

Depends on how you look at the polls. For instance, the AP-AOL News poll sees gloom and doom:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Another terrorist attack, a warmer planet, death and destruction from a natural disaster. These are among Americans' grim predictions for the United States in 2007.

But on a brighter note, only a minority of people think the U.S. will go to war with Iran or North Korea over the countries' nuclear ambitions. An overwhelming majority thinks Congress will raise the federal minimum wage. A third sees hope for a cure to cancer.

These are among the findings of an Associated Press-AOL News poll that asked Americans to gaze into their crystal balls and contemplate what 2007 holds for the country.

Six in 10 people think the U.S. will be the victim of another terrorist attack next year, more than five years after the Sept. 11 assault on New York and Washington. An identical percentage think it is likely that bad guys will unleash a biological or nuclear weapon elsewhere in the world.

There is plenty of gloom to accompany all of that doom.

Given the AP's general anti-American tone in all their coverage, I can't say I'm surprised that they found gloomy people expecting doom.

But wait - there's more! Another AP story on the exact same AP poll says just the opposite:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The news from Iraq and other national headlines may be grim, but in Greenville, N.C., John Given has a new baby and his first home, and life is good.

So, too, for Sandra Trowbridge in tiny Magnet Cove, Ark. The situation in Iraq makes her feel pessimistic about the state of the nation, but at home, at least, all is well. Even if nothing special has happened to her family, she says, "we still love each other," and that's enough.

And so it goes for most Americans. An AP-AOL News Poll finds that while most Americans said 2006 was a bad year for the country, three-fourths thought it had been a good one for them and their families.

Polling results are clearly in the eye of the beholder, which makes them essentially useless. However, these two stories do point out a reality about America today. If you ask someone how they think other people are doing, they'll often react pessimistically, because that's all they've been hearing on the news. Other people must be suffering and having problems - Katie Couric told me so.

However, if you ask them about their own lives and situations, they are often much more positive and enthusiastic. Why? Because the economic data, the greatest story never told as Larry Kudlow proclaims, shows that most Americans are doing very well, but the lack of reporting of those facts lends a feeling of doom and gloom.

My happiness is not dependent upon polls, so whenever I hear a poll proclaiming dark days, I just ask myself if that's true for me? Since it's not, the pollsters can go pound sand because their results are irrelevant to me and don't affect my life.