Here's an interesting exercise in spin. Gallop did a Paul Ryan poll for USA Today on how people rated the pick- Excelent 20; Pretty Good 19; Fair 24; Poor 18; No Opinion 19.
As I see that, twice as many people liked the pick (20+19=39) as those who panned it (18).
However, that is not what you get in either the USA Today story on the poll or the CNN story on it (I saw the news on this there first).
In a nationwide survey taken Sunday, 39% of registered voters call Republican contender Mitt Romney's selection of Ryan "excellent" or "pretty good" while 45% rate it as "only fair" or "poor." Sixteen percent have no opinion.
A USA Today/Gallup poll conducted Sunday and released Monday indicates that 39% of the public sees Romney's choice of Ryan as excellent or pretty good, with 42% saying it's a fair or poor pick, and nearly one in five not having an opinion.
The CNN link actually goes to a different Washington Post web page for a different poll on the VP short-listers of last week. Neither site gave a link to the actually Gallop page in question; I had to go to the Gallop site to get the information.
That leads you to assume that "fair" is a bad take and that the bad takes nudge ot the good takes. The 39-42 spread was what CNN was playing up this evening.
Ryan is one of the few running mates in recent memory that had already been villified by the opposition prior to being posited as a possible VP. Even so, he only had 18% hating his guts here. However, the night is still young, and the oppo teams are hard at work having him killing off Granny and other evil things lurking in his GOP budget.
Comments