Watching CNN and MSNBC dole out tidbits from exit polls is fun, in a way, but in an awfully cheesy way. Chris Matthews keeps trying out Tonight's Big Number--almost unfailingly something unimportant.

My idea of a big number is the statistic they haven't fed us yet. Here's one they have: 17 percent of Pennsylvania voters made up their minds just this past week or in the past few days, acc to MSNBC. Now, acc to an exit poll over at CNN earlier, of such voters--the only recently decided, i.e. since the televised ABC 'debate' acc to the commentators--the majority went for Clinton.

No surprise there. I cannot remember the exact statistic, but around 10 to 7 is ballpark. So, we know where 17 percent of voters went, yielding about 10 percent of the total state vote, acc to exit polls, for Clinton.

My question: What about the OTHER 83 percent of PA voters, who did not wait until this past week or so to choose? How did that other 83 percent break? Those teases at the cable channels haven't told us . . . Stay tuned. That's the idea, of course.

I like that 83 percent statistic. That's exactly the statistic on the number of unemployed, among recent PhD grads, among new doctorates in the Humanities back when I came out of graduate school. Not a typo; academic professorial jobs were obtained by 17 percent of us. Including me. That was when I went to Little Rock, Arkansas, for a stint in what they officially called a Terminal Instructorship.

I wd like to see the breakdown on that 83 percent in PA. Maybe later.

On related news: Television, to do it justice, is providing us with audiotape of Bill Clinton accusing the Obama campaign, at least twice, of "playing" the "race card." He says it clearly, says it more than once, in his faux-jovial way.

Today Clinton denied it on air, and per usual, picked a fight with the reporter who asked him about it.