AFP/Getty Images President Barack Obama arrives at John F. Kennedy International Airport September 24, 2012 in New York.

Here are some polling questions you’re not likely to be asked the next time the kitchen phone rings: Do you trust political polls or think they're skewed for partisan gain? And how much time during this final stretch of the election do you plan to spend digging through the minutiae of presidential polls?

For more than a few Americans, the answer to the final question seems to be: Quite a lot. A tight presidential contest is fueling a fierce debate over whether the daily stream of polls accurately reflects the dynamics of the presidential race.

With Republican challenger Mitt Romney now lagging behind President Barack Obama in most national polls (see the WSJ.com trend charts of national polls), the outcry has grown particularly loud from the right. No sooner does a poll go online than critics begin to pick it apart, usually with the argument that the survey misrepresents the perceived partisan breakdown either of the country or the particular state being examined.