Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

So the goofballs over at RedState are beside themselves with glee over a Rasmussen poll suggesting that:

most voters said John McCain is the person they’d most want to answer the phone in the White House when a foreign policy crisis arrived.

How many is most?  More on the flip.

This is a pretty short diary, because there is only so much that can be said about such willful spin and stupidity.  In the wake of Hillary's 3 a.m. phone call commercial, here's what the poll found:

42% Want McCain to Answer 3:00 a.m. Phone Call
Before Hillary Clinton was declared the winner in Texas, most American voters had read, seen, or heard about her 3:00 a.m. telephone commercial. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 43% had seen at least part of the commercial which was played incessantly on news networks and other outlets for days. Another 16% had heard something about it and the overwhelming majority (81%) correctly identified Hillary Clinton as the candidate whose campaign ran the commercial (see the commercial).
The commercial was credited as one factor enabling Clinton to turn her campaign around in Texas last week. But, 42% of all voters said the person they’d most want to answer the phone was John McCain. Among all voters, 25% picked Clinton and another 25% named Obama as the person they’d want in the White House when a foreign policy crisis call arrived.

Let's break it down:

Percentage of people who wanted McCain:  42
Percentage of people who chose Hillary:  25
Percentage of people who chose Obama:  25

In other words, 50 percent wanted a Democrat!  How on earth does that translate into "most" people wanting McCain?

•  Tips for blogging on a Saturday night.

  by William S Martin on Sat Mar 08, 2008 at 05:08:59 PM PDT

•  It's new math

  Just like Bush tries to take credit for reducing the deficit after he ran it up 4 trillion or so.

  by Finn MacCool on Sat Mar 08, 2008 at 05:11:00 PM PDT

  •  Not the new math...

    "THE" math, a la Karl Rove.

    "You may end up with a different math, but you're entitled to your math," Rove said. "I'm entitled to 'the' math."

    by RonV on Sat Mar 08, 2008 at 05:30:08 PM PDT

    •  Rove's 'math' underestimated how much to 'fix'

      vote totals..... they won't make the same mistake again

      by xrepub on Sat Mar 08, 2008 at 06:44:15 PM PDT

•  you must be some

  northeast liberal ivy league intellectual latte sippin elitist with those fancy shmancy "numbers"

  by smokin jo on Sat Mar 08, 2008 at 05:16:23 PM PDT

•  Math GOP style

  If you take NCLB into account, the math adds up.

  by BoiseBlue on Sat Mar 08, 2008 at 05:16:27 PM PDT

•  This is sad...

  ...When you get fired up about who can the best answer an imaginary phone @ 3am, it's  just sad  on so many levels.

  by wyvern on Sat Mar 08, 2008 at 05:24:41 PM PDT

•  only because

  he'd tell those damn kids to get off the phone and stop bothering him at all hours.

  by theloniously on Sat Mar 08, 2008 at 05:25:37 PM PDT

  •  They keep throwing the ball over the fence

    Can you blame him?

    by BoiseBlue on Sat Mar 08, 2008 at 05:31:12 PM PDT

•  They're not real bright, are they?

  by Kim from Pgh PA on Sat Mar 08, 2008 at 05:28:35 PM PDT

•  Statistic never lie.

  by Free Spirit on Sat Mar 08, 2008 at 05:48:48 PM PDT

•  3am McCain

  Red phone rings.  You see an arm poke out from under the covers and fumble around.  You hear cursing, and more cursing, and finally see the hand move across and slap a big red button.  Fade out.

  by ohioskeptic on Sat Mar 08, 2008 at 05:51:26 PM PDT

•  McCain "What the F#^&$#@&#!!!" WHO in the #$#$@*^

  ....BOMB the #$@#*&%!*%%^ out of them!!!   What are you waiting for?!?!?

  given the not well covered comments from senior military officers concerned about McCain's 'extreme' temper and his 'over-reacting' - this is what his response would likely be - even if the call was

  "Mr, President, European farmers have surrounded a McDonalds and the US Embassy in Luxemburg to protest US trade policies... a tractor scratched our Ambassador's car."

  by xrepub on Sat Mar 08, 2008 at 06:43:14 PM PDT