Do Battleground States Really Matter?

My father used to say that “figures don’t lie but liars sure can figure.” And while I wouldn’t accuse my friends who produce the Fake News of lying, they sure have a way of reporting the figures which basically amounts to the same thing.

I’m referring in this particular instance to the endless talk about which way the election is going in the so-called ‘battleground’ states, which are the states whose outcome will determine the overall result because these are the states which contain voters who switch from red to blue or from blue to red every four years.

And since we already know how the non-battleground states will vote, since cows outnumber Democrats in Kansas and Democrats outnumber straight, white men in Massachusetts, to all intents and purposes the outcome every four years comes down to what happens in those so=called ‘battleground’ states.

Let me give you an example of how the numbers aren’t always what they appear to be or how they are reported to be.

This morning, I’m reading a story out of Newsweek, which says: ‘Kamala Harris overtakes Donald Trump in new poll.’ The story is based on a national survey released by the pollsters at Florida Atlantic University which gives Kamala a five-point lead over Trump.