Interesting poll and good football

In all the haze and navel-gazing from a media who is trying as hard as they can to get the Republicans back in power (or at least get money from their ads and have lots of interested viewers on Election Night), comes this poll from Newsweek which shows Obama and Dem approval at higher-than-usual levels. Well, how is this so? CHECK THE CROSSTABS. 11.5% of voters under 30, and about 40% under 50, which is much below the other polls I've been ripping earlier (remember the poll that had under 35 as "N/A"?) . This is probably much closer to what the real voting population will be compared to the earlier polls.

Newsweek also takes the extra step most other pollsters haven't recently, TALK TO PEOPLE ON CELL PHONES. 1/3 of the respondents were reached by cell phone, 2/3 by landlines. Again, this is probably closer to reality, but I'm sure it'll be laughed off as some left-wing outlier. Let's just say that we'll see in 8 days which model is right- the one based on population and demographics, or the one based on an arbitrary picture of the "likely voter."

I'm hoping Election Night goes half as well as it did for Wisconsin football teams this weekend. I'd argue Bucky's comeback at Iowa is a bigger win than OSU due to all the injuries they had to fight through, and the fact that Iowa's offense came to play in its own building. Bucky's bye week couldn't come as a better time, because these exhilarating wins take a lot of toll, despite being so fun.

Then the Pack hang on against Brent and the Vikes. Notice that Favre's limp got worse whenever he INT'd or threw an INC pass? I am Jake's complete lack of surprise on that one. Brent really is a lot like the Republicans- self-absorbed, past his prime, gets far more media coverage and reverence than he deserves, really doesn't have a helluva lot to say, and goes out of his way to remind you how put-upon he is, despite having more money and breaks than any of us know what to do with. We'll see if this "fractured ankle" miraculously heals in time for Brent to trade notes with Brady next week on how to bang hotties.