No Exit Polls? No Problem!

From "The Plank," a blog posted on the New Republic's website, this is almost as good as the idea of terrorism futures:

"For political junkies suffering from data deficit disorder because the exit poll folks are being kept in a locked room and will not be let out until 5 p.m. today--there is a source of relief: The political futures market. Three websites offer the chance to buy into or against virtually every contested Senate, House, and Governor race, and to bet on which party will control either branch of Congress, by what margin, and even to make longer-shot parlays, betting, for example, on the Democrats taking both (or neither) branch.

"The appeal of these websites is that they are constantly changing, so that statistics nuts who don't want to bet can still watch their favorite and hated candidates move up and down, just as if they were a stock or commodity.

"At this writing, 2:46 p.m., you can put $59 dollars on Claire McCaskill to beat incumbent Missouri Republican Senator Jim Talent with a chance to get back $100, or you can put $35 on Talent and get back $100 if he wins. In other words, the market on intrade.com clearly favors McCaskill. Political folks have recently described the Montana Senate race as neck and neck, but the people who put money on it disagree, clearly favoring Democrat Jon Tester over Sen. Conrad Burns by a $70-$25 margin. If you believe the experts' claim that the race is even, putting money on Burns is clearly worth the return."

http://www.tnr.com/blog/theplank (you'll need to scroll down the page)

In addition, this is just absurd, and it makes me actually thankful for the fact that voters have been so inundated with political ads that they can't possibly mistake candidates' parties:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/07/AR2006110700740.html