I'm a doctor. When I want to arrive at a correct diagnosis, I do not shop around for labs or images that give the most favorable results so that I can blow sunshine up a patient's rectum.
If a patient has mets to the liver, I need to know that and so does the patient. The old, cynical joke in radiology is that we found a lesion on CT but it's O.K. because we erased it using PhotoShop.
If, as a candidate, among all voters (not only the FR Echo Chamber), Perry has mets to the liver, we need to know that.
Data is data and you ignore accurate data at your own peril.
See my Post 18. My objective is not to push "my candidate". My objective to make certain that the Marxist wannabe President that currently sits in the Oval Office is NOT reelected in November of 2012.
If Perry is the most conservative candidate that can accomplish that goal, he's my dog.
If a dog other than Perry comes along that can better accomplish that goal of defeating Obama, I would put the Perry dog down with a round between the eyes, as if he were Old Yeller, without thinking twice about it.
I am not emotionally attached to any GOP candidate.
You do not win battles with self delusion. You win battles by truthfully knowing the strength and the weaknesses of both your enemy and yourself.
If Perry has weaknesses, we need to know it so they can be corrected. If a candidate has weaknesses that are beyond correction, that candidate needs to be yesterday's news.
In war and in politics, ignorance is fatal.
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"It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle." .... Sun Tzu
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As for the actual data, you analyzed it incorrctly.
The most crucial point in the Perry data is that 14% of all voters do not know enough about Perry to give an opinion and 30% of all voters have never heard of him. At this stage of the game, that means that Perry still has 44% of all voters up for grabs. That is a huge advantage as the Perry concrete is still liquified with a potential shift of 44% of all voters.
By contrast, everybody knows who Obama is and only 5% of all voters have not made up their minds about Palin. The Palin concrete and the Obama concrete is pretty much set and will not change much.
That is a fatal flaw for Palin as 75% of all voters believe she would not be a good President and, in an April Gallup Poll, 46% of all voters said that they would definitely NOT vote for Obama.
The polling data thereby gives a huge advantage of the still unknown Perry over Obama since Perry still has 44% of the concrete still liquid and, if he is skillful, can get that concrete to set in his favor.
