The West Wing: Joey Lucas explains how numbers can lie to Josh

[bornbillsmith]

She new how Donna felt about Josh way before he did.

Was she the only one or were there others who also knew.

[DeSwiss]

Exactly. Politicians lead by reading poll numbers rather than understanding poll numbers. And what many people don't realize is that you can create polls that ask things in a way that deliver whatever result one is looking for. And "we the people" are manipulated in this way -- ALL THE TIME.

Reliance upon polls in one's decision-making is basically the difference between a politician and a stateswo/man. And it would seem that the world is fresh outta stateswo/men.......

[TheAutumnEffect9]

Which episode was this in? :)

[adamsmith877]

Agree, great scene

[rosaf19]

@Kimota01: As CJ might say, "I disagree with your characterization" of this scene. Joey's a pollster, OF COURSE she believes you CAN assume things based on statistics. But all smart statisticians know that there are pitfalls, and that there can be more than one way to interpret the same numbers. In this case, she's not saying the statistics don't tell us anything, she's saying that Josh is responding to them in the wrong way.

[tmoore4075]

Great scene.