Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Math is Hard [Updated - So is English]

Update: A reporter I contacted pointed out that the Obama campaign says "$50 per donation", not "$50 per donor."  In other words, for example, one person gives $50 twice during April: this means $50 per donation, $100 per donor.  As a relative newcomer to writing about campaigns, I failed to note this distinction . Turns out English is hard sometimes, too.  Mea culpa.
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Original snarky post:

    This morning, the Obama campaign tweeted some contribution figures for April.  The screen shot below is from the @BarackObama Twitter feed in the order they were sent, so from all appearances, they are meant to be taken as a package:


One of the main talking points of the Obama campaign is that they are the campaign of the little guy, so they often make a big deal of size of the the average contribution.  Indeed above, they tout the average as $50.  However, let's do the math:
Yes, that's right.  They have understated the average contribution by 50%.  The average is actually double what the Obama campaign has claimed.  However, if you have ever perused a budget proposal submitted by the Obama administration, you already know math is not their strong suit.


Update: So far (as of 9:46 AM,) media outlets I have checked are just repeating the campaign's figures.

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