At the end of today’s TPMtv Sunday show roundup episode, Howard Dean and Tim Russert are going back and forth about the DNC’s McCain 100 years ad and after Dean’s made his point, Russert comes back at Dean saying “and yet Sen. McCain is tied or beating both Clinton or Obama in most of the national polls.”
The truth I think is that he’s basically tied against both Democratic candidates. But ‘basically’ is just an issue of the margin of error. I could run you through all the most recent polls. But a good shorthand is simply to look at the composite numbers put together by Prof. Charles Franklin at pollster.com, which shows both Clinton and Obama slightly ahead of McCain.
It’s a minor point. But false facts to spin an argument is always worth calling out.
