OBSERVATION: Figures do not lie, but liars figure.

I was about to give the progressives (nee radical lefties) the benefit of ignorance. However, I have come to the conclusion that their distortions are malicious propaganda mongering. Shakespeare said “a rose is a rose.” For the off-the-chart-liberals, apparently a rose is what ever they choose it to be.

Hot Seat, one of the informal opinion surveys that pop up on my computer screen posed this question after General (nuisance) Wesley Clark demeaned the military hero record of John McCain. “Should John McCain’s war record be an issue in his presidential bid?”

(Let’s pause here. First, in terms of useful information, I personally think these “informal’ [read that unscientific] opinion surveys are akin to newspaper horoscopes, advice to the lovelorn columns and check-out counter newspapers. Worthless. Second, any reader of this blog will know that I am not the most enthusiastic McCain supporter on the planet.)

Having said all that, I was interested to hear (hot) Air America’s gab maestros noting that according to Hot Seat, 57 percent of the nation said the war record was pertinent. It carried a majority in every state except Maine. Apparently “as goes Maine, so goes the nation” is as anachronistic an adage as “two chickens in very pot.” (For the younger readers, no, the latter was not an advertisement for the soup at KFC. They are both ancient political rallying cries.)

The on-air liberal talk show hosts were all a twitter in their opinion that the pseudo poll validated General Clark’s unseemly assault on McCain’s war record and its value to his perspective on the presidency. A cheap shot, to be sure. It never occurred to these wishful thinkers that maybe a lot of those who said “yes” to the online survey thought his experience was relevant and valuable in a positive way. Duh!

Now least you think this is a stretch. It was only last week that these same counterclockwise media spinners were alleging great public opposition to the Supreme Court’s gun ruling by noting that only 23 percent of the public approve of the work of the highest court in the land. This, they proffered, proves that the conservative court if not very well like.

Again, it did not occur to these ethereal radio voices that a lot of the disdain of the Court is from conservatives who do not like a lot old rulings, such as election reform, abortion, affirmative action, etc. I am an example of what I say. My one-time contempt of court has gradually given way to greater respect as the newer justices have restored a strict constructionist, originalist majority. Without qualifying the source of the disdain, the general opinion cited on (hot) Air America is meaningless. Duh!

The left seems particularly conditioned to using statistics like the drunk uses the lamp post – more for support than enlightenment.