USA Today Finds Dem-GOP Approval Margin Too Close; Finds 'Better' Data Elsewhere

December 20th, 2007 8:47 AM
Monday's USA Today piece

by Richard Wolf on congressional and presidential approval ratings had this odd segue:

Although just 30% of those polled give Democrats in Congress good marks, they favor the party by a 53%-40% margin in next year’s elections. That represents a silver lining for Democrats, who achieved only a fraction of their ambitious agenda after taking over Congress.

It’s odd because Wolf doesn't indicate how many of those polled gave Republicans in Congress good marks. It's even odder that the 53%-40% election margin Wolf cited is nowhere to be found in the survey detail. Also, neither the article nor the survey detail have an external link to information relevant to this margin.

But the survey detail does tell us that 26% give Republicans in Congress good marks, only 4 points fewer than the Dems. Wolf "somehow” managed not to mention that.

Did Richard Wolf feel compelled to go out and find a more impressive difference between the parties? 13 points is a lot bigger (better?) than 4.

No bias there, eh?

Included in revised form as part of this post (second item) at BizzyBlog.com.