  A new Monte-Carlo based uncertainty analysis is introduced to quantitatively
determine the predictive ability of QCD sum rules. A comprehensive analysis of
ground state rho-meson and nucleon spectral properties is performed. Many of
the findings contradict the conventional wisdom of both practitioners and
skeptics alike. Associations between the phenomenological fit parameters are
particularly interesting as they reveal how the sum rules resolve the spectral
properties. The use of derivative sum rules for the determination of rho-meson
spectral properties is shown to be a very unfavorable approach. Most prior
nucleon sum rule analyses are based on a sum rule which is found to be invalid;
the results are suspect, and should be reevaluated. The ``Ioffe formula'',
argued by many to qualitatively encapsulate a description of the nucleon mass
in terms of the chiral symmetry breaking order parameter is misleading at best.
QCD Sum Rules are found to be self-consistent without contributions from direct
instantons. This implies that instanton effects are adequately accounted for in
the nonperturbative vacuum condensates. This in-depth examination of QCD sum
rule self consistency paints a favorable picture for further quantitative
refinements of the QCD sum rule approach.
