At Politics Daily, Bruce Drake sticks with politics, and does so in grand “Interpret the data the way to best fit my narrative” style.

In a story titled “Public Divided On What to Do About Expiring Bush Tax Cuts,” Drake takes a look at polling numbers on what the public wants to do with the soon-expiring tax cuts, and decides to ignore the one statistic that should have jumped out at him:

Congress is headed for a battle over whether to let tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003 under former President Bush expire at the end of the year. When it comes to public opinion on the issue, 30 percent of Americans want to keep all the cuts, 27 percent want to repeal cuts for the wealthy while keeping the others, and 31 percent favor letting all the cuts expire, according to a Pew Research Center/National Journal poll conducted July 22-25. Twelve percent are undecided.

Did you read that as divided? Or did you read that as 58 percent want to repeal tax cuts on the most wealthy, 30 percent want to keep them all, and 12 percent were undecided?

But, hey, what’s the fun of reading it that way when you can talk about how divided the public is on the issue.

The biggest change in public opinion is on tax cuts for the wealthy. In 2008, 37 percent favored letting them expire compared to the 27 percent in the new poll. The number of those who favor keeping all the cuts or who want to get rid of them entirely increased, but by lesser amounts of 5 and 6 points respectively.

Nothing to see here. The public’s divided on the issue.

–WKW

Crossposted at William K. Wolfrum Chronicles