Dick Cheney isn't real, people.  He's actually Bob Rumson, the evil, manipulative candidate played by Richard Dreyfuss in Rob Reiner's and Aaron Sorkin's 1995 film The American President, somehow enchanted and brought to life.

Seriously, now.  Richard Dreyfuss made so many little choices that look so much like Cheney, I'm more than half-convinced he was slyly playing Cheney, who was already notoriously evil, if not quite so well-known.  If not, in retrospect his instincts were... scary.

Yes, that's the word.

PS -- welcome to those of you clicking over from The Washington Monthly (or anyplace else who links to this entry).  This site is only a few days old, picking up from my guest posts at This Modern World (where Tom Tomorrow continues to post great stuff) and not everything is organized yet, so if you'd like to see more news here, click "Home/Main Blog" on your left, not "News."  Or just click here.

Strange, yes.  But if there's anything Bush proves, it's that there's a fine line between vast incompetence and brilliant surrealism.

If you like the polls, they change every day, with results posted as jpgs for easy emailing.  Enjoy!