I'm suffering from pernicious election syndrome. I can't resist gorging on election news and my stomach can't handle it. I need the equivalent of that big glass of weak acid my old aunt used to drink with her meals.

My nerves are also inflamed from poll fixation. There must be two dozen polls every day, and that's just for the presidential race, never mind the senate, congress, ballot propositions. I could click on the polls almost as fast as they come out if only my hand would stop shaking.

A buddy and I ran a poll during the 1960 presidential election. Our methodology was to stand in front of the drug store in the center of town and buttonhole anyone who would stop for two wild eyed ten year-olds waving a sharp pencil and a notepad.

Our respondents went for Nixon over Kennedy by something like 11 to 3. We predicated a Republican landslide. That was probably about right for the area, but it didn't occur to us that our small town didn't necessarily represent the wider world. What a shock it was when our fifth grade teacher walked into the classroom the morning after the election, nearly in tears, and announced that Kennedy had won and soon we'd all be taking orders from the Pope.

Maybe that's why I've never been able to trust a pollster. I'd stop to reflect on the matter but the daily tracking polls should be out by now.