Thermometers and Thermostats

Last night on the Fox News Channel program "Hannity and Colmes", former Arkansas governor and presidential aspirant Mike Huckabee joined the bandwagon of politicians who claim they do not slavishly follow polls.

He said polls are a thermometer of public opinion. He said he wanted to be a thermostat and provide leadership to affect public opinion in a positive way.

I guess he didn't think about his analogy enough. For a thermostat to work properly, it must read the temperature of the air around it and then activate the processes to adjust the air temperature. It doesn't operate in a vacuum all willy nilly.

(Don't you love the phrase "willy nilly"?)