2016 Postmortem

Marzupialis

(398 posts) Wed Apr 25, 2012, 04:56 PM Apr 2012

TPM: Obama's lead shrinks from 4% to 4% in new poll

I thought the practice of pushing the race-is-tightening narrative was exclusively a MSM/RW media thing; but I was wrong. One "Kyle Leighton" of the liberal TalkingPointsMemo website today reported that a new poll of swing states (Purple Poll) "shows President Obama’s lead shrinking to four points in a sample of voters in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin." http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/swing-state-poll-obama-by-4-voters-give

The poll was conducted from April 19 to April 21.

But that's not true. The lead didn't shrink. The March poll for this pollster had Obama up by.....4 points. Allow me to use a complicated mathematical procedure I learned years ago called "subtraction" in order to examine the veracity of Leighton's claim:
4-4=0.

Obama's lead stayed the same. You may contact this moron by writing a message to @kyleleighton on Twitter. And if any reader here thinks my "moron" adjective was too harsh, please tell me how long it took you to perform the mathematical operation above.

4 replies

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Highlight:

TPM: Obama's lead shrinks from 4% to 4% in new poll (Original Post) Marzupialis Apr 2012 OP

The media would make it a horse race if Obama was running against a fence post. izquierdista Apr 2012 #1

The TPM TExt Has Been Corrected to Reflect that Obama's Lead "Remains" at 4% Indykatie Apr 2012 #2

I forgot to Welcome You to DU - Enjoy Your Stay if You Came to Merely Attack Liberal Web Sites Indykatie Apr 2012 #3

Looks like they have already corrected the article lacrew Apr 2012 #4

izquierdista

(11,689 posts)

1. The media would make it a horse race if Obama was running against a fence post.

Reply to Marzupialis (Original post)

Wed Apr 25, 2012, 05:04 PM

Apr 2012

Come to think of it, don't more people confide in "you, me, and the fence post" than they do with "you, me, and Mitt Romney"?

Indykatie

(3,697 posts)

2. The TPM TExt Has Been Corrected to Reflect that Obama's Lead "Remains" at 4%

Reply to Marzupialis (Original post)

Wed Apr 25, 2012, 05:48 PM

Apr 2012

I trust TPM as one of the better political sites and am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that the writer made an error. There was another swing state poll recently that showed a larger lead. The text from PurplePoll doesn't reference what the March result was which I found frustrating. I do think your moran adjective is a bit harsh IMO. I think if you follow TPM regularly you no doubt would have seen this as an error and not some nefarious scheme to push a narrative or other agenda.

Indykatie

(3,697 posts)

3. I forgot to Welcome You to DU - Enjoy Your Stay if You Came to Merely Attack Liberal Web Sites

Reply to Marzupialis (Original post)

Wed Apr 25, 2012, 05:52 PM

Apr 2012

I hope no DUer bothers to send the writer a nasty comment based on your suggestion.

lacrew

(283 posts)

4. Looks like they have already corrected the article

Reply to Marzupialis (Original post)

Wed Apr 25, 2012, 06:30 PM

Apr 2012

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