We all go through mood swings this time of year, what with the changing weather and shorter days. For most people, it's just a passing thing, but for some, Seasonal Affective Disorder (or "winter depression") can be a serious psychological illness. (Imagine Julianne Moore in Safe, but wearing a snowsuit and moon boots). Most cases are isolated to certain individuals, but folks up in the Twentieth Congressional District seem to be feeling this dread affliction en masse.

Two new polls out today tracking the race between incumbent Republican John Sweeney and Democratic challenger Kirsten Gillibrand suggest either really shoddy pollster math skills or a frighteningly capricious upstate. In a new Constituent Dynamics poll Gillibrand is beating Sweeney 54-41. But a Siena poll shows Sweeney up 53-39. Can two samplings of citizens with a relatively similar cultural and social experience be that disparate? Was the Constituent Dynamics sampling limited to Kirsten Gillibrand's pets? Did the Siena folks ask only Alpha Delta Phi brothers? It's baffling.

We should definitely dispatch a team of white-coated psych-ward attendants to round up the troubled residents of the Terrified Twentieth. They might do something truly deranged, like vote the Green Party ticket.