When looking at a system, in our case the GOP Primary and it’s candidates, you don’t always have data that matches the “ideal.” In statistics they use a method called Least Squares.

The method of least squares is a standard approach to the approximate solution of overdetermined systems, i.e., sets of equations in which there are more equations than unknowns. “Least squares” means that the overall solution minimizes the sum of the squares of the errors made in solving every single equation.

The candidates and their credentials are our overdetermined system. We know these men, or at least we have our opinions on them, and try as we might we just can’t get them to match up on every single point along the line that is our ideal. In this examination, “there are more equations than unknowns.” If we wanted to take the time we could rate each one on every criteria that we feel is important from their positions on financial matters to national defense to how presidential they look. If we plotted each value for each candidate we could see how their regression line looks compared to our own.

So what?

There are a couple of things that we can learn from this. A much simpler expression is, “there is only one perfect person, and Jesus ain’t runnin’.” Sorry if I’m the one breaking this news to you, but none of the candidates is going to match your idea of perfection on each point. They’re not. Get over it.

It would also be clear from any analysis that President Obama’s plotted regression would look like a graph of the Chicago Cubs World Series wins. The inverse of that is that each Republican candidate looks much better by comparison. That leaves us to determine which candidate looks the best.

But there’s a problem.

You and I are going to score the candidates differently. Not only are we going to have a different opinion on where a candidate ranks on a particular issue, we are also going to differ on which issues are the most important, and which don’t matter to us.

Again I ask, so what?

Let’s not take our eyes off the goal. We need to defeat Barack Obama in November. We’re not going to do it with the perfect candidate. We just need to determine which candidate, for each of us, is our Least Squares Fit.

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