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ZOMG!!!! 100% is TEN MORE than 90% !!!!!

by: Dean Barker

Wed Jul 02, 2008 at 06:52:25 AM EDT
The DC elites are always telling us how smart our engineer in the senate is, but I didn't really see it until now:
"I think this race is about the future of this country and the Senate. John Sununu wasn't running as an incumbent senator in 2002," Shaheen said. "He's running as an incumbent senator now, an incumbent senator who voted with this administration 90 percent of the time and got us to where we are today: with $9 trillion in debt, a war in Iraq with no end, a housing crisis, gas prices that are the highest in history, and no energy plan. . . . We need a dramatic change, and we are not going to get it with somebody who votes with George Bush 90 percent of the time."

Sununu's campaign didn't dispute the 90 percent figure but offered a statistic of its own.

"Senator Sununu has been an independent voice in the Senate and voted with New Hampshire 100 percent of the time," spokeswoman Julie Teer said in a prepared statement.

It's settled - I think I can vote for Sununu. He's voted for our state 100% of the time! That's one more time than every time he voted with Mr. Bush! "Statistics" are so much fun!

Back in reality-land for a moment: what do you think is really behind this ad nauseam repetition of voting "with New Hampshire 100 percent of the time"?  At first I thought it was just broad slogan rhetoric to shift the focus away from Bush, but now I'm wondering if he's also seriously going after super-low info voters with it.  After hearing it a few dozen times, can't you just imagine the conversations: Yeah, he's Republican like Bush, but did you hear, he's voted for New Hampshire every time they had a vote?
Dean Barker :: ZOMG!!!! 100% is TEN MORE than 90% !!!!!
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ZOMG!!!! 100% is TEN MORE than 90% !!!!! | 7 comments
L'État, c'est moi (4.00 / 1)
Senator* Sununu voted with NH 100% of the time? I was going to say, what a howler, but then realized, to Sununu, when he voted to give himself a raise, but voted against a hike in the minimum wage, he thought he WAS voting for New Hampshire, because he is one of those Louis XIVth type of guys.  

"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt   [I'm an advisor to the NHDP Coordinated Campaign]
Not just "low-info voters"... (0.00 / 0)
... "low-math voters."  Your sarcastic exclamations come from a person who is comfortable with complexity and numbers.  For many other people, the 100%, being both larger and non-fractional, will be easier to remember.

This is a very cynical attempt to drown out the reality-based message in the minds of those who don't want to think about "math" or who fashionably squeak, "I don't do numbers!"

Are you serious? (0.00 / 0)
No matter how "low information" or "low math" a voter is, I have faith that the people of our state are competent enough to know which of two numbers is higher, and that 100% means all.
[ Parent ]
Sorry, I think you misread my post... (4.00 / 2)
The point was that a quote about 100% of something is more memorable than one about 90% of something, particularly if the audience is uncomfortable with math.

I have a little experience with innumerate  people (as we probably all do, though many people don't think of it this way.)  Once an easy-to-remember "100%" figure is cited, fractional values seem less important and fall off in recollection, superceded by the higher (and whole) number.

Try it out sometime:  give someone with a math phobia five or six percentage values to remember along with things they purportedly measure.  Make one of the values 100%, and the others fairly random, all in the same area (say in the range 75-100%.)  Chances are they'll remember two or three of them -- but I guarantee the 100% will be one of the remembered ones.

Combine this with the unanalyzable meme "voting for New Hampshire" (as though there were some Senate resolution condemning the state) and it's pretty clear this is a cynical attempt to grab support from people who "don't do numbers."

The R's do rhetoric better than we do, typically, and this is a prime example.  If the NHDP had wanted to head off this sort of memory override, they could have used the 100% themself by providing a full 100% accounting -- like "10% independent but 90% Bush"... or better, "yes, he's 5% independent, 5% absent, 90% Bush." (Talk in threes. :D )

[ Parent ]
Mathematical logic aside (0.00 / 0)
I have to say, that's a clever answer from Ms. Teer.
Republican flaks specialize in shutting down discussions by saying things that don't mean anything. (0.00 / 0)

[ Parent ]
IIRC, it's been a quote John E. (0.00 / 0)
has used several times now since filing for the run.

The repetition makes me think this will be their chief talking point.

Wonder if Sununu's fired now.

[ Parent ]
ZOMG!!!! 100% is TEN MORE than 90% !!!!! | 7 comments
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