Who Do You Believe, the Exit Polls or Your Own Lyin' Eyes?

It looks like Wisconsin voters have put the West Wing into panic mode:

President Obama will need to double down on his efforts to keep Wisconsin safely in his column after Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) resounding victory in Tuesday’s recall election.

Every Democratic presidential candidate since Walter Mondale in 1984 has won Wisconsin, but the Obama campaign “can’t view Wisconsin as being in the bank for them,” said Barry Burden, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “They’re definitely going to have to put more effort here than they were initially planning.”

Of course, Sharp VodkaPundit Readers™ have known Wisconsin was a tossup state since last summer. You’re welcome for that, by the way.

Anyhoo, Amie Parnes and Cameron Joseph then go on to dutifully report that

Political observers say Obama remains the odds-on favorite to win Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes, a sentiment reflected in exit polls showing the president leading Mitt Romney by a healthy margin.

Those are the same exit polls which led Rachel Maddow to eat chocolate for dinner, so she could stay up all night and report on the results. NBC declared Walker the winner just 49 minutes after the polls closed.

50/50 race, my tanned bottom.

If Romney wants to contest Wisconsin — and he absolutely should put Obama on the defensive anywhere he can — he could have a real shot of taking it.

UPDATE: I also told you back in August (same link as above) that Michigan was a tossup. Well, lookie at this new poll:

President Barack Obama’s popularity in Michigan has slipped in recent months, leaving him in a dead heat with Republican challenger Mitt Romney, according to a new poll of state voters by EPIC-MRA of Lansing.

The poll, released this morning to the Free Press and four TV stations, shows Romney leading Obama 46%-45%, a reversal from the last EPIC poll in April which showed Obama ahead 47%-43%.

I apologize to you, dear reader, for keeping you only ten months ahead of the news cycle.

Hat tip to Jim Geraghty, who adds, “Hey, wasn’t Romney’s position on the auto bailout supposed to make him radioactive?”