Includes bibliographical references (p. 369-376) and index.

Part one: birth of a pollster -- Canvassing, the Klan, and the plot to take over New York City -- Harvard, Ivy League radical chic, and the crisis of the Democratic Party -- The invention of overnight polling, Ed Koch, and politics in the Big Easy -- Part two: going global -- Polling in the promised land -- Public opinion research and the fall of Slobodan Miloæsevic -- Broadband politics, ugly Americans, and politics in the shadow of the world's most dangerous state -- Part three: the big time -- New Democrats, inoculation, Bill Clinton, and Ma Bell -- The stealth campaign and the resurrection of the Clinton presidency -- Jon Corzine, competitive liberalism, and the importance of messaging -- September 11, Mike Bloomberg, and the rise of the outsider -- Part four: an uncertain future -- The power and possibilities of exit polls -- Pitfalls on the path to 2008.