I take Rationalization to be the act of having a theory before you approach data and then cherry-picking the data that fits your theory.  This leads to Self-Deception (or maybe deception if you are doing the cherry-picking to trick other people).

In a possibly related comment, here is the Nov 6 projection from UnSkewed Polls:

What is the Democratic equivalent to UnSkewed Polls?  I do not know.  My guess is they would forecast same as 2008: Obama 365, McCain 173. Or would they add in AZ and TX because of the large Latino populations?

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