As the debates begin ...

As we enter final countdown for the first presidential debate in what has arguably been the longest campaign in the history of politics, here's a little bit of campaign wisdom from Facebook Friend Alan Bernstein:

"Dear Political Journalists -- margin of error is not a statistical tie. You don't simply subtract the margin of error from the candidate who leads in your poll to get the "actual" result. There is an equal possibility that you should add the margin of error to the leading candidate's polling. And this is not a partisan point -- it applies equally if a Republican or a Democrat is in the lead. So please stop calling things a "dead heat" or a "tie" when that's not what the polling indicates."

Helpful!