Alternate headline: “Blogger to start drinking in the morning.”

With less than a week until the primary in the historic Wisconsin gubernatorial recall election, a new Marquette Law School Poll shows Tom Barrett leading Kathleen Falk 38 percent to 21 percent, with 8 percent for Doug La Follette and 6 percent for Kathleen Vinehout. In a June general election between Barrett and Governor Scott Walker, Barrett leads by one percentage point, 47-46, among all registered voters, while Walker leads by one percentage point, 48-47, among likely voters. Both results are well within the margin of error of the poll. Walker leads former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk 49 percent to 42 percent among registered voters and 49 percent to 43 percent among likely voters.

Looking ahead to the November election, President Barack Obama leads former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney 51 percent to 42 percent, a small change from the 48-43 matchup in March just prior to Romney’s win in the Wisconsin Republican primary.

That’s right in line with the rest of the recent polls. Barring something extraordinary happening, you and I will be right here at 3 a.m. on election night, still waiting for those fateful final returns from slow-footed Waukesha County to come in and decide the state. If Barrett beats Walker, we’ll get a solid month’s worth of “tide turning against the GOP” stories in national media. If Walker holds on, a solid month’s worth of “Wisconsin doesn’t mean much” stories instead.

Two clips here of Chris Christie in Wisconsin rallying the troops on Walker’s behalf. Paul Ryan’s also said he’ll campaign for Walker and I assume Mitch Daniels will make the short trip to Madison too. All hands on deck for the GOP’s most prominent fiscal hawks. Like Ryan says, this is the second most important election in the United States this year.