The commission said those five polls were chosen with advice from Frank Newport, the editor in chief of polling powerhouse Gallup.
"The American view of Europe can be summed up as one of mystified impatience," said Mark Penn, chief executive of polling firm Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates, at the luncheon.
Britain Thinks polling chief Deborah Mattinson thought politicians should take advantage of the vast ocean of vaguely political chat sloshing around on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the rest.
The chief reason that the polling establishment disapproves of Zogby is his practice, in political polls, of weighting for party identification.
In 1980, Mr. Wirthlin, as chief campaign strategist, used polling to help Reagan build a winning coalition that included blue-collar Democrats and evangelical Christians.
Ben Page, chief executive of the polling group Ipsos Mori, has perhaps put it most succinctly.
Frank Newport, the editor-in-chief of Gallup, defends polling against critics who claim that it affects elections — which it certainly does, pollsters' protests notwithstanding — and undermines leadership.
Corporate chief financial officers, polled by Duke University and Financial Executives International, a trade group, voice confidence that sales will pick up if the war ends quickly, but express concern about the effect of a terrorist attack or a long war.
For management ability, they scooped up various surveys like Burson-Marsteller's one on company reputation, which polls chief executives and investors.
George W. Bush is leaving as the most unpopular commander in chief in the history of polling.
