Got a reminder today from Fox News Sunday of the hazards of accepting statistics at face value. Chris Wallace was interviewing Romney adviser Ed Gillespie and he asked him about the claim, frequently made by the Obama campaign, that Massachussets ranked 47th among the states in job creation during Mitt Romney's term as governor. Gillespie broke down the data differently and provided a omewhat different picture.
Apparently Massachussets ranked last in job creation when Romney took office in 2003 but ranked 30th by the end of his term in 2006. The Obama campaign's figure of 47th is technically accurate but it obscures a trend that arguably favors Romney.
This illustrates the chief strength and weakness of statistics. That is that statistics operate to distill large amounts of data into gross generalizations. These generalizations can summarize but they can also conceal important details.
Of course the larger question is the extent to which any governor can be blamed or credited for his states job performance. But this issue reminds me to look more critically at any statistics proffered to support a given position.
No comments:
Post a Comment