So what happens when you’re in the middle of playing Halo, and someone from the New York Times calls you for off the cuff analysis? Well, this:

But even without the straight ticket, Mike Caulfield, a co-founder of bluehampshire.com, a political Web site, said he expected Mrs. Shaheen to win.

“People kind of treasure their indecision,” he said of New Hampshire residents. “They kind of hold on to it much longer than people in other places might. But if 2006 is any guide, the independents will break very hard for the Democrats.”

I stand by the quote though. The reporter was primarily calling me not on the race, but looking instead for some demographic context. And yeah, “indecision” is what I said, because I do think it’s ambiguous whether this is a good thing about NH-ites. I blame the primaries, where you’re always more interesting as someone in the process of deciding than as someone who has signed on.

I do wish that Dean Barker, the BH co-founder who is a nationally recognized expert on this specific race, had been called instead — but by a fluke, he was on vacation this week in some undisclosed location.