Kerry pulls ahead.
According to the first post-debate poll, from Newsweek, John Kerry leads President Bush by a margin of 49% to 46%. Put Nader in the mix and Kerry’s margin drops from 3 to 2.
Notably, on the front page of the MSNBC site, the headline reads “Kerry Boost: Poll shows Democrat even with Bush after Debate.”
Statistically speaking it’s probably fair to call that a tie or basically even. But given how much emphasis has been given to the polls with big Bush leads (Gallup, CBS, etc.) over those with narrow Bush leads (IBD, Fox, Zogby), it seems a funny way to headline the first poll to show Kerry in the lead in like a month.
Late Update: Sheesh! It’s worse than I thought. The blurb on the Newsweek poll on the right side of the front page of the MSNBC website reads: “A solid majority of viewers surveyed say the challenger outperformed the president in their first face-off, and Bush’s lead among registered voters has all but vanished.”
All but vanished? My God. Yes, this is just one poll. Others may well differ. But the article is about the new Newsweek poll that shows Kerry beating Bush among registered voters. So doesn’t that mean Bush’s lead has all vanished, rather than “all but vanished.”
I was never good at math. But isn’t MSNBC a bit off on this one?
