It strikes me that some in the political class who don't go through the business of trying to win elections claim a sense of one up man ship. I have respect for anyone willing to face the public in ultimately is a test of popularity of personality, deeds and popularity.
This attitude is found in some taking the piss out of political people who all talk about canvassing in positive terms. 'Great response in town X', of course the election results cannot possibly bear out that (not everyone will get the positive result).
However, I actually believe there are decent reasons for this. Firstly, despite what some will tell you, people are generally welcoming of political campaigners. Granted, you get the same old people saying 'you only see them around election time/I aint voting for none of you', but given they have confirmed they will never vote you can hardly expect political campaigners to prioritise those people.
Secondly, in my view political campaigners are interested in one thing on the door during an election campaign - useful data. You can try to pick up a case and promise to look into it, but with a few weeks until election day, not many cases can be solved in that time. You will record confirmed support for other parties, but identifying your support (confirmed and potential) is ultimately the point of things. This feeds into the 'positive response' comments - you remember the things that ultimately are useful to your goal.
Thirdly, many candidates are still trying to motivate volunteers to help them for free. You wouldn't be human if you hesitated in giving up your time unless you felt it was helping in the wider goal. If your candidate is telling you it is negative and there is no support...
Fourthly, most voters are undecided - yet they decide elections. Political people, ones who will only vote one way no matter what, are a small section of the electorate. Many are undecided, many haven't given it's a moments thought, some don't even know there are elections on. These people's responses range from the 'thanks, will now shut the door and see if I want to vote' to 'thanks, I will now vote for you'. Often canvassing is the only way to reach these voters.
And lastly, I am not wet enough to believe that many people are too polite to do anything but nod, make some non committal "not sure yet", take a leaflet and not really think that much about it.
If you think about it, I have no doubt that many people do encounter a positive response on the door.
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