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Of Leaps and "Slight Increases"
11/03/2002

Besides the skew pointed out by Juan at the Volokh Conspiracy (you may have to scroll down), I spotted an interesting use of language in a New York Times article about Americans' attitudes about our politicians going into this election:

For Mr. Bush, there has, over the last month, been a slight increase — to 35 percent from 27 percent — in the number of people who say he is "paying enough attention" to the economy. The rise coincides with a period in which the White House made a concerted effort to portray Mr. Bush as concerned with that issue.

It seems to me that, over the past year, downward shifts of a few percentage points of approval on any given issue for Bush have been touted as significant drops. How is it that an 8% increase is "slight"? (I know, it's the Times, you can stop laughing at my naiveté.)

Then again, since the article sports the headline, "In Poll, Americans Say Both Parties Lack Clear Vision," despite the fact that 11% more respondents feel that Republicans do have a "clear vision" than feel the same about the Democrats, it must take quite a contrast for the Times to be able to differentiate between such things.

Posted by Justin Katz @ 04:10 PM EST