With time ticking away until Election Day, I thought it was time to go a bit more in depth on polling this year, to give all of us an idea of what we should believe and what we should be skeptical about when it comes to polling.

Let's start with New Hampshire today, where Hillary Clinton was fighting to save her candidacy, just days after Barack Obama won the Iowa Caucuses, with Clinton finishing third.

I remember driving from Manchester to Concord on Primary Day.  It was a gorgeous day, and the guy on the radio was telling me the only question was not whether Obama would win that night, but by "how much."

Let's check back at the final polling data from New Hampshire and see how some of the same firms we talk about, how they did in predicting that primary outcome.

Let's start with John Zogby, who has been doing polls for CSPAN and Reuters all year.   Zogby has taken a lot of flak the last few years, and in New Hampshire, he deserved it.

Zogby's last poll had Obama winning by 13 points, 42-29 over Clinton, with Edwards at 17.

The actual tally was Clinton 39, Obama 37 and Edwards 17.  While Zogby hit the Edwards number, he missed on Obama by 5 points and missed on Clinton by 10.

And he missed on the overall margin by 15 - Obama +13 versus Clinton +2.

Rasmussen is another polling group that gets a lot of press with their polls.  They had Obama at 37, Clinton at 30 and Edwards at 19.

So, Rasmussen hit Obama dead-on!  But they missed Clinton by 9 points. 

And they missed the overall margin by 9 - Obama +7 versus Clinton +2.

Next, we look at the CNN/WMUR/University of New Hampshire poll, which had Obama winning by 9 points, 39-30 over Clinton.  They missed Obama by 2 and Clinton by 9 points.

They missed the overall margin by 11 - Obama +9 versus Clinton +2.

We shouldn't forget to look at the GOP numbers from these three organizations either.

Rasmussen had McCain beating Romney 32-31, Zogby had it at 36-27 and the WMUR poll was at 31-26.

McCain won over Romney 37-32.  Zogby was the closest on McCain, while Rasmussen and WMUR missed by five and six points.

Now let's look at the polls out of New Hampshire for the general election.

WMUR/UNH has Obama up 25 points.

Rasmussen has Obama up 4 points.

Go back and see how far off the poll numbers were for the New Hampshire Primary, and ask yourself what you should believe now.

Hell if I know.