and in other news...

Though Fox News is where I go first each morning online to see what's going on I also check other news sources to see what the headlines are elsewhere. Since one of the top stories on CNN.com this morning was how the "Republicans make gains, but still trail Democrats" I clicked in to see what it had to say. The headline was accurate as I read the stats of the 1,010 people polled. In all polling questions it appeared that the Democrats had the edge, but it's interesting how it's presented. Lets have a look:

"Fifty-two percent of people questioned say the president's policies will move the country in the right direction. An equal percentage feel the same way about the policies of the Democrats in Congress."

Easy enough to see. 52% think Obama will move in the country in the right direction and 52% think the policies of the Democrats in congress will move in the right direction.

"What do Americans think of Republican policies? Forty-three percent say the GOP's policies will move the country in the right direction. Nearly half of those polled said congressional Republicans would move the country in the wrong direction."

Uh-Oh, GOP, only 43% (9% less than the president!) of those polled think you'll move the country in the right direction and nearly half think congressional Republicans would move the country in the wrong direction. Wait a minute..."wrong direction"? I thought we were talking about the right direction. So if "nearly half" think the Republicans would move the country in the wrong direction what does that mean? Well we're apparently only dealing with whole numbers here so the closest thing to "nearly half" would be 49%, right? So if 49% think the Republicans would move the country in the wrong direction then apparently 51% think they would move the country in the right direction, right? Why didn't you just say so? Well it doesn't matter, the Democrats still out polled the Republicans by 1%. 52% think the Democrats will move us in the right direction and 51% think the Republicans will so when you look at all 103% of...huh? 103%? Oh, right, the margin of error, lets see...here it is...+/-4.5%.

So with a possible 9 point spread in a poll of a whopping 1,010 people (approximately .0003% of the population) we find that maybe there's not a story here at all and the country is still divided by somewhere around half. Well it was still fun to play with the calculator.

A.J.