Ever since the two parties had their conventions, political junkies from across the land have been glued to the polls, breathlessly waiting to report on the latest numbers. The media has primarily been using polling to shamelessly pronounce that Barack Obama has it in the bag and that Mitt Romney is done for. Every radio host (Hugh Hewitt included) has been out dissecting the bogus polling data that oversamples Democrats anywhere from 7 to 11 points. Every poll is skewed in this manner and what’s even more brazen, they question our sanity when we wonder why their polling methodology is overinflated, even over the 2008 turnout.

National Journal pollster, Steven Shepard

But if the Left’s skewing of the polls to prop up their Golden Boy, who is precipitously going down in flames enrages you, you should also be enraged by conservatives who fall for this ruse every single time. We all can name people we know who panic every day because a new poll comes out and the media pronounces that the race is over. Do we have to keep explaining that the media lies? Do we have to keep pointing out that the sample being used in most polls doesn’t reflect enthusiasm and is even more inflated than what we saw in 2008?

The first tip off that this race is long from over is that, even though these polls have in some instances projected Obama with a double digit lead in states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida, Obama continues to campaign in those states. If Obama was assured re-election in spite of the fact that every time you turn on the TV, you see his foreign policy imploding on your screen, then why is he feverishly going to all of these states? Are we really to believe that, even though unemployment has been above 8% for his entire term of office, he has added $6 trillion to the national debt in one term, he has shredded the Constitution every time he turns around, he has bowed and apologized around the world, he has sought to divide and conquer, and his entire political agenda is the reinvention of America into a third-world banana republic, Obama is guaranteed re-election?

There is a reason that Rush refers to “the drive-by media”, that Hannity says “journalism died in 2008”, and that Hugh refers to the “smoldering wreckage of the hope & change presidency”. Those reasons are all the same: Obama is going down in flames and the media has to prop him up so that his utter lack of regard for the American people isn’t apparent to one and all. They doctor polls, they ignore Obama’s lies, they doctor tape to misrepresent Romney, and for all of this, the two men are still in a statistical tie. The media is trying to deflate conservative turnout, they are trying to dispirit us, and force us to give up.

But, we know the game, or we should. There is no excuse for any conservative, independent, or right-minded libertarian to lose sight of the goal. The goal is to send Obama to the unemployment line, where so many Americans have been camped out for the last four years. As we head into the debates, Obama will have to, at some point, defend his record, which he has spent the entire campaign running away from. Romney will have to use this opportunity to force him to answer for this epic fail. If and when that happens, the head fake will have been flipped on its head. The emperor will have been exposed to have no clothes, and even his biggest lap dogs will have to notice.

We know that the deck is stacked against us, we know that the media can’t be trusted to report honestly, and we know that they will never do the job they claim they are doing every time they call themselves objective. So my message to conservatives is simple:  stop falling for it. Stop believing the media. Don’t look at polling other than Rasmussen and Gallup. Don’t waste time with polls that sample “adults” or “registered voters.” Go right to the state-by-state polls and only pay attention to those that sample “likely voters.” And even then, look at the methodology. If the pollster won’t tell you the breakdown, he’s telling you he can’t be trusted. So wake up (I won’t swear at you like a certain Obama-worshipping half-wit did), pay attention, convince your friends and family, get folks off the fence, and then vote for Romney/Ryan like your life and the survival of the Republic depend on it. Because in a few simple words: it does.