Come on Jamwin, Republicans use polls for their advantage all the time. Especially in the last 18 months, like every health care poll that came out...
I think they can be useful, and except for some odd cases are usually correct in predicting election results, etc.
As always, time will tell, but I think there will be major backlash against Republicans. Some pretty smart people have shown that had Democrats held the senior citizen vote in the last elections, the results would have changed in many districts. Obama lost seniors for passing some minor medicare reform savings in the health care bill - Republicans are for privatizing the whole thing. Kudos to Repubs if they push ahead on that because it's what they believe, their own strategists are warning them what the consequences might be...