Innumeracy of the McHoover campaign

Article by John Allen Paulos, author of Innumeracy. I use his book in one of my classes to show examples of poor mathematical reasoning.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20081014_Campaign_numbers_sometimes_don_t_add_up.html

It can be telling when a campaign relies on numerical demagoguery. Every candidate and campaign does so to an extent, but John McCain's team seems to be especially prone.

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The appeal of the chanted slogan "drill, baby, drill" also relies in part on the innumeracy of its intended audience. The United States possesses an estimated 3 percent of the world's oil reserves, but it uses approximately 25 percent of the world's supply. The relatively small amount of oil available offshore won't free us from dependence on foreign supplies or reduce the high cost of gasoline, especially since whatever oil is obtained won't be available for 10 years.

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Of course, all politicians and campaigns attempt to spin perceptions, and they all realize that people frequently overreact to vivid, easily understandable stories. (Can you spell Monica?) Without an appreciation for numbers and scale, however, almost every story and issue devolves into bland statements suggesting bogus equivalence - a "he said, she said."

Some numbers are much bigger than others, and some stories are much more important than others. Think, baby, think.