Polling Arithmetic

NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll conducted by the polling organizations of Peter Hart (D) and Bill McInturff (R). Feb. 26-March 1, 2009. N=1,007 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.1 (for all adults).

"When it comes to the partisanship that goes on in Washington, how much blame for this situation do you feel that [see below] deserve(s): almost all the blame, a major part of the blame, at least half the blame, a minor part of the blame, or almost none of the blame?" 2/26 - 3/1/09

Almost All A MajorPart At LeastHalf A MinorPart AlmostNone

"The Bush administration"

33 23 25 13 5

"Republicans in Congress"

17 24 42 12 3

"Democrats in Congress"

9 15 45 20 8

"The Obama administration"

4 7 15 25 43

OK so "almost all" and "a major part" are presented as more than "at least half"
This means that there is quite a lot of blame to share around. I mean more than all of it.

The total blame to be shared is definitely more than half of the blame times the sum of shares to the 4 possibly blameworthy entities. That adds up to more than 2.83 halves of the blame so more than 141.5% of the blame.

Thats a large share of the blame no ?

Ah numbers, can't live with them, can't live without them.