What’s Your Source for That?

Inside the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, though, it seems like there’s some breathing room. People simply don’t blame the president yet for the economy or the deficit.
When you think about the current economic conditions, do you feel that this is a situation that Barack Obama has inherited or is this a situation his policies are mostly responsible for?
Situation Obama inherited – 72 percent (-12)
Situation Obama’s policies mostly responsible for: 14 percent (+6)
Some of both: 10 percent (+4)
And:
Which ONE of the following groups do you feel is most responsible for the federal budget deficit?
The Bush administration: 46 percent
The Democrats in Congress: 21 percent
The Republicans in Congress: 7 percent
The Obama administration: 6 percent
ALL: 13 percent

Here is the original post – seems legitimate to me.

http://winteryknight.wordpress.com/2009/06/06/o…

Obama inherited the problem; even Bush inherited the problem from the Clinton administration's deregulation (even if it was not Clinton's initiative).

Citing WordPress.com. This reminds me of the people who cite Google.

[...] here the online news site that did the search to find that my blog was the one being [...]

It's just simple analysis on the blogger's (Winteryknight) part. He added the job losses together from January through May. The sources were http://www.creditwritedowns.com, http://www.moneymorning.com, http://news.yahoo.com, and http://finance.yahoo.com, and he cites all of them. Would you really expect the ad to give four different sources? ? Even if the source was from a blogger, it's better to give credit where credit is due, particularly when it is BASED on valid sources. This isn't rocket science; it’s simple addition. And I don’t think the mainstream media should be the only ones to get credit for forming a sum of 5 established numbers. The blogger was (probably) among the first to put these numbers together and come up with the 2.19 Million figure, so props to Todd Tiahrt for giving the credit. After all, it’s not Tiahrt’s fault that the mainstream media is so horrific when it comes to analysis.

The point is, what is being challenged? What about the figure is disputable? Are you REALLY disputing this number just because it was referenced in a blog? If not, then why bother criticizing?

robb, Tiahrt didnt cite the blog, he cited the service provider for the entire blogging platform. Get it?
If I quote a statistic from a newspaper published a particular agency, I have to specifically cite that, and not give credit to the newspaper boy who delivers teh newspaper to my house.

oh, come now… the point is not that the cite is WRONG–the point is that the cite is MISLEADING. Why didn't Tiahrt make the cite “winteryknight.wordpress.com”? The point of a citation is to help other people find the material. Otherwise, why cite the author at all? Citations are used to situate the opinions/facts/dialogue into the larger debate. Leaving out the actual name of the author of a quote is like citing magical unicorns. Sure, we cite “the new york times” or “the atlantic”, but it is understood that if there is no specific author quoted, then the author is assumed to be the editorial board. Otherwise, we cite both the name of the author and the publication (and, often, the date!)
This is standard high school level stuff here… Bibliographies and footnotes/endnotes do not cite a publication or website that has hundreds, thousands, millions of authors without mentioning the author.

Yes, the attribution to “WordPress.com” was a goofy error by someone that didn't understand blog hosting.

But it was used on at least one WordPress-hosted blog:
http://winteryknight.wordpress.com/2009/06/06/o…

Don't know why your search didn't spot it.

Using “WordPress.com” to cite a blog is like using “International Paper Company” to cite Time magazine.

First of all, the Winteryknight got the simple addition wrong; the total in the blog title doesn't match the figures given. Second, it isn't really simple addition. Simple addition would occur when you use the same source for the data. This blogger didn't. He instead cited different media stories, one which used Dept. of Labor statistics, another used ADP Employment figures, etc. The reality is (and I think the actual point of this blog entry), when a campaign cites a blog as a source, it really should make sure that the blogger at least got the data correct. And if that is the case, then why not cite the actual source of the data? The irony here is that if the blogger had used the ADP figures for each of the months (http://www.adpemploymentreport.com//indexsbr.aspx) the figure would have been higher. And the blogger would have also been able to find out that in the last 12 months of GW Bush's presidency (Feb 08 – Jan 09) 3.387 million jobs were lost. Heck, each of the first 21 months of his presidency (Jan 01 – Sep 02) there were job losses. During the first 30 months of his presidency there were 3.456 million jobs lost. But did these same folks blame Bush? Or did they blame the policies of Clinton?

McAuliffe's ad said he created thousands of jobs. WaPo said it was in FL not VA. BFD.

Terry McAuliffe isn't an angel, but there's a big difference between making up something entire, and just fudging the meaning of a quote. You don't need to play Villager's high Broderism, some people (and groups) are worse than others.

I think I found the source for that claim: http://toddtiahrt.wordpress.com/

Heh, Glenn, that site is a gross parody (I hope!) It wouldn't show much, for a candidate to say X on his blog anyway, the issue is the proof.

[...] WordPress.com Is A News Source [...]

Well, when did facts and accurate statistics ever be part of politics? No, you may not use that as a quote in your ad, because it was sarcasm and has a high probability of being inaccurate. To be honest, it was never meant to be accurate. Much like the people who say, “Bush lied,” and then runs off.

The message is the same thing. Oh people are going to say, “Obama loses [some arbitrary number pulled from where the sun doesn't shine] jobs,” then run off. If enough people say it often enough and enough people say it constantly, then it must be true. Okay, no. How do you argue with someone who obviously is so devoid of reality, that they'll believe anything?

Also, Obama is the President. When has the president ever created or destroyed any private sector job that didn't involve working on a public sector project? The statement could only be accurate, if he fired 2.19 million public employees.

[...] the launch page for WordPress blogging software . And while it’s possible that some blog … Read Full Article (No Ratings Yet)  Loading … Word [...]

[...] jobs” to “WordPress.com.” David Weigel of the Washington Independent also noticed it and wrote: “WordPress.com isn’t a news site. It’s the launch page for WordPress blogging software. And [...]