Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics... and more Lies

So, if there's lies, damned lies and statistics... what do we call it when the statistics are baloney?

The state of the Tierney-Tisei campaign, from the Salem News, reveals this tidbit on the two campaigns' dueling polls:

Tierney's camp, however, said the GOP poll "has a double-digit Republican bias," noting that the same poll showed U.S. Sen. Scott Brown with "an implausible 24-point lead" over Democratic rival Elizabeth Warren. Statewide, the two are virtually tied. 

In fact, the GOP poll does have elevated Republican representation, GOP poll author John McLaughlin said in an email to The Salem News.

Now, I have no idea who is 'winning' this race, but when a campaign releases a poll that shows it's 'up' by doubling the size of Republicans in the poll, that's just making shit up.

Given how expensive polls are, there aren't likely to be many good polls in this race going forward, but it's always a good bet to take what the candidates have to say on the horse-race stuff with a grain of salt. Especially the media.

Podcast Central: Marriage Equality, John Walsh, the State Senate and More!

I've been seriously negligent on my LeftAhead promos here on RyansTake, so here's a batch of our last few.

• Interview with Boston City Councilor Steve Murphy. We chatted lots of Boston topics, but also focused in on the proposed Suffolk Downs casino. Here's your chance to see what the President of the Boston City Council thinks about that, including whether or not the entirety of Boston should be able to vote on it, or just East Boston. I'll spare folks my thoughts on that matter, because if you're here, you probably know it already.
• State Democratic Party Chairman John Walsh. We love having John Walsh on and it always makes for a great show. He went over the strategy for this year's elections and I loved his thoughts, toward the end of the show, on the brewing Tierney-Tisei congressional race, which promises to be a doozy. Let's just say Tisei, the 'moderate' got behind the Blunt amendment... 
• Mike and I on the Republican Reality TV Primary, especially Santorum and Romney. Mike's always amazed that our pundit-like shows often do as well as shows with good guests, but I'm not as surprised. We had a lot of fun with this one, and people like fun. Plus, we're totally better pundits than most of the bobble-heads from CNN and Fox News.
• Freedom to Marry Board Member, Rev John Buehrens. Buehrens brings a national perspective as a 9-year member of Freedom to Marry, one of the chief national organizations fighting for marriage equality across the country. He's also a local UU minister, who just so happened to chair the national organization for a while.
  
  He brought even more insight into the state-by-state battles going on in Maine, Washington, Maryland and elsewhere than I expected -- so if these are on your radar, definitely check it out. He also brought in a fascinating understanding of where marriage equality, partisan politics and religion intersect, and how that influences the battle. This show shouldn't be missed.
• State Senate Candidate Mara Dolan. Our show with Dolan today was great. She is clearly a very credible candidate, with a wide policy background, as well. I was very pleased to hear that she understands the fact that the "MBTA issue" is a Beacon Hill issue as much as anything else.
  
  If you're from the 3rd Middlesex District, this is a can't-miss show, and even if not, you should still check it out, because these races have impacts that are far more wide-sweeping than their own borders. 

Congressman Tierney on Government

Pretty cool stuff.

More detailed stuff to come, this was just a fun video to start off with.