From a reader:

Jonah- Do you have any information about why the most recent weekly AOL Straw Poll was suspended last week? It no longer accepts votes for either candidate, although the Hot Seat question which appears next to the straw poll on the page is still active. About three hours before the latest straw poll was re-commenced, the prior one showed total votes nation-wide of 577,505, with McCain ahead by 136,853 at 12:06 p.m on September 2, with all states red. The new poll began at 5:00 p.m. on that date and had registered more than 124,000 votes, with McCain again ahead handily, when it suddenly stopped. I am aware that this is an extremely inaccurate poll that, I’m told, reflected Bush over Kerry by 20 points in 2004 when he won by something over four, but it was fun to participate in it, and I found it a comfort to see all the states usually red, with Vermont and DC occasionally turning blue but then often reverting to red. I am highly suspicious that just as I loved seeing the states all red most of the time, the Obama camp hated it and didn’t like participants in the poll seeing it either. It has consistently shown McCain leading by 62% to 38%, or better. Could the Obama campaign have used their influence to get this poll suspended? I’ve read no explanation, and I’m writing because I thought perhaps you might have heard an answer to the questions the suspension raises in my mind. Please forgive the length of this email. I feel awkward bothering you with it because you are so busy, but I didn’t know how else to find an answer. Thank you for any help you can give me.

Me: I have no idea whatsoever. Though as with all things like this, it’s best not to leap to the most politically advantageous conspiracy theory right out of the box. A) Life usually doesn’t work like that and B) When it does work like that, it’s so much more enjoyable if you let the drama build slowly.

Update: One small point about McCain leading in the now vanished straw poll: It doesn’t surprise me. I am sure AOL users skew heavily older and non-urban. Some of them even use dial-up. If you did a straw poll on face book, I’m sure McCain would get crushed.

Update II: Lots of readers who follow the AOL polls more than I do — which is to say more than zero — tell me I’m wrong. For example, from a reader:

Jonah- I follow the AOL polls, and I have to tell you that the political poll results almost always skew left, so I was also shocked when I saw the 64% McCain number. Also, the political coverage at AOL skews left as well, so it probably wasn’t Obama’s camp that spiked the poll, it was the lefty nerds that run AOL.