Their Slip is Showing

Ankle Biting Pundits has a post on the sagging Bush poll numbers. It's a pretty good take-down on the skewed nature of the sample.

One of the biggest problems I have with polling is the sloppy way questions are often worded:

Generally speaking, would you say things in this country are heading in the right direction, or are they off on
the wrong track?

I can think of several ways that could be interpreted:

• Bush is leading us in the wrong direction
  
• Bush is leading us in the right direction, but not fast enough.
  
• Bush is leading us in the right direction, but those !@#$%^&* in Congress are blocking every move.
  
• Bush is leading us in the right direction, but those !@#$%^&* in the Main Stream Media are blocking every move.

Although I was a History major in college, I specialized in data crunching - collection and analysis of quantitative data. Fortunately, my offbeat interest captured the attention of my advisor, Dr. Ramos, and another number-cruncher, Dr. Wheeler. They nurtured my interests, and I learned a lot about how numbers can be massaged and fondled into submission.

Tags = News and Politics