Pittsburgh's top-ranked National Football League defense dominated Washington in a 23-6 victory Monday night that served as a good omen for US presidential candidate Barack Obama's White House bid.

The Steelers shut down NFL rushing leader Clinton Portis and sacked Redskins quarterback Jason Campbell seven times. A third-quarter pickoff of a deflected Campbell pass snapped an NFL record streak of passes without an interception.

Pittsburgh improved to 6-2 while dropping the Redskins to 6-3 on the eve of the US election and thereby under the "Redskins Rule" of US politics delivered a signal that Obama rather than John McCain would win the American presidency.

For 17 consecutive US presidential ballots, the outcome of the Redskins' last home game before Election Day has predicted, some even fancifully claim has actually decided, which candidate will receive the most votes.
If the Redskins win the game, the party with the most votes in the prior presidential election wins the subsequent election. Should the Redskins lose, the party holding the US presidency loses.

------------

Of course, this didn't work the last two elections, but fuck it, it was a areat game. It looked a bit brown for a minute when Big Ben Roethlisberger went out with a dodgy shoulder, but Byron Leftwich (who I always maintained, was good enough to start on one team), came on and saved the day with several acurate passes.