In The Nation Today . . . Information from the Gallup Poll Web site

It's maddening. You hear a snippet of a poll result on theradio, but was 67 percent of the public optimistic or pessimisticabout the economy? Or maybe it was 6 percent? Now a visit to theGallup Poll Web site (http://www.gallup.com/poll/index.asp)lets you double-check those half-heard numbers. Organized into neattopics--politics and elections, business and the economy, socialissues and policy--the Poll's facts and figures are all just amouse-click away.

Particularly interesting to business leaders are the Galluporganization's polls on the public's economic optimism.Taken collectively, the results provide a fast look at thenation's mind-set of the moment. Spend 15 minutes clickingthrough these opinion surveys, and you, too, will know what peopleare thinking.

To contact Robert McGarvey, e-mail him at rjm@mcgarvey.net.