Wanting to get a feel of THE POLITICAL CLIMATE IN MADISON TODAY, I took a walk down Bascom Hill and up State Street. (You can see the assorted signs of political life in this photo essay on my regular blog.) There’s one poster store on State Street that has long had a near-life-size cardboard cutout photo image of President Bush in its front window, but I noticed today that they now had a matching cutout of John Kerry. Both were selling for $31, and I wondered which one was more popular. I decided to do some direct reporting for Instapundit readers. I went in and asked the young man at the front cash register which one they were selling more of.

“Well, we’ve had the Bush one a lot longer. And you know, this is Madison, so a lot of people are buying the Bush one so they can … you know …”

“What? Do things to it?”

“Umm …”

“But, so, since you’ve gotten the Kerry one, which one is selling more?”

“I hate to say.”

“I’m thinking it might be some indication of who’s going to win the election, don’t you think?”

“I hope not!”

A bit inscrutable, maybe, but I’m thinking the Kerry one isn’t selling well at all. But the poster store guy may have the right interpretation of the sales discrepancy. Don’t we all suspect most of Kerry’s support is antagonism toward Bush? But what are these people doing to those Bush cutouts?