The Times They Are Accelerating

Is it just me, or are the frontrunner's boom and bust cycles getting shorter?

All Iowa Polls from polling firms that have been rated by New York Times polling analyst Nate Silver (except for polls from ARG and Insider Advantage which are rated near the bottom). Trends are created using a 3 poll moving average.

Solving the Paul/Cain Arizona Straw Poll Winner Riddle

 In a memorable movie Kathleen Turner says to her teacher "I happen to know that in the future I will not have the slightest use for algebra, and I speak from experience".

But to solve the riddle of major news organizations (CNN, Reuters, Politico, etc) offering conflicting stories about who won the Arizona Tea Party Straw Poll, Ron Paul or Herman Cain, a little high school algebra does wonders.

Ron Paul did win 49% of one part of an Arizona Tea Party straw poll and 15% of another part of an Arizona Tea Party straw poll.

Herman Cain did win 12% of one part of an Arizona Tea Party straw poll and 22% of another part of an Arizona Tea Party straw poll.

Ron Paul did get 581 straw poll votes 

Herman Cain did get 256 straw poll votes.
About 1600 people did take part in the Arizona Tea Party straw polls.

It is probably true that 1600 people paid up to 125$ to attend an onsite one day event.
It is probably true that 2300 (maybe even 3000) people paid up to 10$ to view this event online.

The other information in the various articles
2300 people took part in an online poll
1600 people took part in a live/onsite poll
are FALSE.

High school algebra is how you sort out truth from sloppy reporting because the number of people taking each version of this poll was never reported correctly by the news media or the straw poll event organizers. Why, is up for someone else to figure out. I just do math.