George,

While there have been five polls released since the Democratic National Convention, radio spielmeister Sean Hannity today cited the only one that showed President Bush in the lead, entirely omitting to mention the other four. This was the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll.

If you were to take all five polls, add up the points for each candidate and divide by five, they'd give Kerry about a four point edge overall. To hear Hannity tell it, though, Bush is the frontrunner. What's more, Hannity added, this is the first time since McGovern's nomination in 1972 that the nominee "got no bounce" from the Convention. What he neglected to say (and Kerry did get some bounce, though admittedly not a lot) was that political pollsters report the electorate is so divided this year there are few swing voters to do any bouncing.

Hannity's first comment is what we might call selective but non-representative evidence, and his second comment is to present a fact but not explain that his comment based on it is misleading. Hannity also did not bring up the cheering news for the Democrats the pollsters found: that Kerry's support among those committed to him hardened appreciably during the Convention. Overall, Hannity's view the Democrats gained nothing from the Convention is, to put it charitably, misleading.

Sherwood Ross (electronic mail, August 2, 2004)