If you read Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire, you probably think you’re up to speed on all things Capitol Hill. Unfortunately, you might also be reading incorrect polling data.
Goddard told his 53,000+ Twitter followers yesterday that nine percent more people disapprove of the Democratic Party than approve, compared to a whopping forty-six percentage point differential for Republicans.
The problem is that the ABC News/Washington Post poll he cited doesn’t say that at all. In fact, it reports that the Democrats are underwater by 26 percentage points:
Great math, dumbass. @politicalwire pic.twitter.com/FzRo4GXJBr
— ¡El Sooopèrr! ن c137 (@SooperMexican) October 7, 2013
Granted, the GOP is still doing a lot worse, but there’s a big difference between a nine point approval gap and a twenty-six point one.
At the time of this writing, it has been 14 hours since Goddard posted the incorrect data and 10 hours since Twitchy contributor Sooper Mexican pointed out the error. No correction as yet. Meanwhile, Goddard’s tweet has been re-posted or retweeted by more than 115 people, including Huffpo reporter Sam Stein:
“@politicalwire: Obama net approval rate is -6 points.
Democrats are -9 points.
Republicans are -46 points.http://t.co/maahcB4MH9”— Sam Stein (@samstein) October 7, 2013
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