Somethin's Goin' On

My primary email address is still at America Online. Frankly, AOL is a horrible place; they seem to think I'm interested in celebrities, and I can't even check my mail without having to click through news about the eating disorders and romantic breakups of people I've never heard of, and could not care less about.

One thing about AOL that has been very interesting to me, though, is that every week for months they've had a presidential poll. To vote, you have to identify what state you're in. AOL displays the winner of each state on a map of the United States; red states are McCain, blue states are Obama.

With one or two exceptions, the map of the United States has been entirely red, week after week. I expect this reflects something about the demographics of AOL's users that they wish were not so.

But here's the interesting thing: They've got a new poll up, and suddenly the AOL users are moving:

Who do you want to win the election?
McCain 43%
Obama 51%

Who do you think will win the election?
McCain 42%
Obama 58%

What did you think of McCain's move to temporarily suspend his campaign?
Thumbs up 40%
Thumbs down 60%

Who do you think won the first presidential debate?
McCain 31%
Obama 45%
Neither 15%