The chief pollster for Fox News defends polls succinctly here. The conclusion:

Likewise, we don’t need to contact every American — more than 230 million adults — to find out what the public is thinking. Suffice it to say that with proper sampling and random selection of respondents so that every person has an equal chance of being contacted, a poll of 800-1,000 people provides an incredibly accurate representation of the country as a whole. It’s a pretty amazing process if you think about it.

Still, many people seem to have a love-hate relationship with polls. Even if they enjoy reading the polls, some people can turn into skeptics if they personally don’t feel the same as the majority. Maybe they don’t even know anyone who feels the same as the majority.  Yet assuming everyone shares your views and those of your friends and neighbors would be like the cook skimming a taste from just the top of the pot without stirring the soup first.

Basic but a staple of many a statistics and research methods course. Unfortunately, more people need this kind of education in a world where statistics are becoming more and more common.