Thursday, October 30, 2008

My poll watch addiction

I will certainly have time to write 1667 words per day after November 4th. I spend at least two hours a day looking at poll numbers and analysis. This has been going on for months, escalating a little bit every day (so the time spent in this activity sort of snuck up on me), and lately I've been spending even more time on FiveThirtyEight, Pollster, and RealClearPolitics, checking for updates, hoping there's a bit of new analysis, just staring at charts. . .yes, I am powerless over my addiction to polls and my life has become sort of unmanageable. Well, not really. I only hope I don't wind up hooked on polling numbers about how people feel after the election. It certainly is possible. I mean, addictions are hard to break, right? Lose one and another comes along to replace it.

Here's the picture of the state of the race here in my state, Maine:

Unfortunately, this graph doesn't fit the window properly, but you get the idea.
I have to ask myself, once again, why all the McCain/Palin lawn signs? What's up with the Obama supporters?

4 comments:

TMC said...

You are a braver woman than me. I can't look at the numbers. The only poll I can tolerate is the goofy one on the Yahoo homepage that shows Obama's electoral vote margin stomping all over and then mooning McCain's.

Julie H. Rose said...

Oh, I'm so glad you didn't leave a link! I HAVE to get to my schoolwork already!

jmcleod76 said...

Two things ... 1) You live in the less populous, but infinitely more conservative, Second Congressional District. All of the Democrats in that district live down here in Lewiston (well, not ALL of them ... I'm being hyperbolic).

And 2) The Maine Democratic Party is stingy as hell with the lawn signs. They make you sign your firstborn into indentured servitude as a party canvasser for the next 20 years just to get a friggin' bumper sticker! The Republicans know they're in the minority, so they give those things away like Chinese infants just to make themselves seem more powerful. (sorry, was that simile too crass?)

I wouldn't worry too much about it; I have it on good authority that elections are never won by lawn signs.

Anonymous said...

True that, elections are never won by the lawn signs:)
I make a conscious effort not to follow the polls. Although, with my husband giving me an on-the-hour updates, it's hard not to get wrapped up in that.
It baffles me as well when I see so many McCain lawn signs in what I know to be a predominantly democratic county! Go figure...But then again, I don't have an Obama sign either.
I voted yesterday. Wow, a lot more young people and African-Americans were out there then usual!
N~