Sure, the Club for Growth poll showing Conservative-party nominee Doug Hoffman ahead is good news for him. But perhaps even more intriguing are the favorable/unfavorable numbers. Obviously, all of the candidates have fairly high “no opinion” or “never heard of” numbers.

Democrat Bill Owens is at 24 percent favorable, 16.7 percent unfavorable. Hoffman is at 30.3 percent favorable, 13.7 percent unfavorable.

And Republican Dede Scozzafava is at 24 percent favorable, 28.3 percent unfavorable.

Ordinarily when a candidate is underwater like that, consultants say, “Wow, this is terrible, somebody hit the panic button and call 911,” but somehow this seems like the wrong campaign to say that aloud.