Stop Calling Me!!!

For what it's worth, my dad lives in a swing state. He told me this morning that he gets called half a dozen times a day by pollsters, that he stopped answering their questions a long time ago, and that he finally blew up at a campaign-linked pollster and yelled at the poor lady to "stop calling me!!!"

All to say that I'm taking all the polls these last few days with even more grains of salt than usual.

Not that I'm checking them every five minutes or anything.

So back to grading, raking, trick or treating, and rooting for the Packers for me.

Just to be clear... this (and yesterday's post) is not a suggestion that anyone actually DOING anything useful for their campaigns should ease up now... heck, if you're doing something useful, do even more of it these last days. As Warren Zevon (I think) put it, you can sleep when you're dead. But the rest of us, that vast majority of us whose private angst will have no impact on what happens Tuesday, need to keep some perspective.

UPDATE: Green Bay 17-7 at the half. The Pack should have put it away already, and then the stupid interception, the stupid fumble... I think I need to treat this game like the election, and just stop watching until the very end!

UDPATE, 3:49: Atrios calls it for the Packers. WTF?!?!? Atrios, there are four quarters in the game... don't jinx it. This isn't Fox on Election Night, you know.

UPDATE, 3:58: Washington touchdown, 20-14 Pack. Thanks a lot, Atrios.

UPDATE, 4:07: interception! Thank you, oh great ghosts of Lombardi! Now Brett, please, please try to throw to Green Bay players from now on, please?

UPDATE, 4:13: touchdown!!! touchdown!!! The Pack's season is saved! Oh, and then there's the whole infallible causal theory of Redskins home games and elections, by which we can now project John Kerry the winner on Tuesday! Yes, I knew about that, of course, but I am after all a Green Bay Packers fan first. And the Packers did their part, despite an - ahem - imperfect campaign... time for Kerry to close the deal!

Comments

[kt]

My parents keep getting polled, too, and they refuse to answer questions. I just get messages from Tommy Thompson, Ricky Shroeder, and a host of other republicans via recording.

I delete at the first, hello, this is.........

And Bret likes to give everyone watching a cardiac workout. Which is why my dad stopped watching and started taping the games to watch later in the week.

[Sven]

My wife tells me she saw a GOP campaign spot featuring Favre... Ack.

[Rodger]

Is this the right thread to point out that I predicted that the Brewers would go 68-94 and they actually finished 67-94?

As I recall, early in the season, someone around here was blasting me for that prediction.

I also had the Red Sox over the Yankees...in the AL East. Somehow, however, the A's-Astros World Series didn't materialize.

While driving to/from the hardware store today, I listened to the Chiefs beat the Colts (we pickup Indy broadcasts where I live). Rooting for the Chiefs is a childhood habit that I don't really enjoy.

Indeed, the weeks between the end of the World Series and the beginning of the college hoops season is the worst sports month of the year, so far as I'm concerned.

[the aardvark]

Yes, Rodger, yes... here I will humbly admit that you were right about the Brewers. You really went out on a limb there, predicting that the Brewers would stink... how could anyone ever have seen that coming? Seriously, though, even hardened Milwaukee fans were stunned at how completely the team collapsed in the second half of the season... it was actually a pretty competitive team in the first half, even if it was smoke and mirrors. One more sorry season in a long, long progression of sorry season.

As for Favre and the GOP, I honestly don't care.. Curt Schilling has been one of my favorite pitchers for years for his sheer Jack Bauer determination and grit. So what if he's a Republican? Still a great pitcher. Same for Brett. Now, about those interceptions though... Oh, but I just heard that Brett Favre's wife has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Love and support to them in what must be a tough time.

[Sven]

Here, here. I didn't mean to imply that Favre's a schmuck for coming out GOP; he's a great guy with a big heart. It's just that I (still) really like him and really dislike the GOP, leading to a bit of cognitive dissonance. John Elway, my childhood hero, did the same thing when he hosted a Bush rally in Denver.