Thursday, December 20, 2007

WSJ - WTF?

Is it me, or can't the staff at the Wall Street Journal read a chart?

An article by John Harwood on the current GOP candidate standings reports: (link)

After holding a double-digit advantage over his nearest rivals just six weeks ago, the former New York City mayor now is tied nationally with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at 20% among Republicans, just slightly ahead of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at 17% and Arizona Sen. John McCain at 14%. Other polls show Mr. Giuliani's lead shrinking in Florida, one of the states he has built his strategy around.

With the poll's margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.1 percentage points, that puts Mr. Huckabee, who had only single-digit support in the previous poll in early November, within striking distance of the leaders. Mr. Romney's national support also has nearly doubled. {emphasis added}

HOWEVER, in a chart linked from that SAME article, the "Overall" margin of error is displayed as "+/- 5.2%." That would be a statistical dead heat between ALL of the top candidates.

How did 5.2 become 3.1? What am I missing here?

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