Each Sunday, after coating our stomachs with a generous coating of Milk of Magnesia (and downing whatever whiskey might be left over from Saturday night), we watch Fox News Sunday. Generally, it’s an exercise in entertainment, but occasionally, we notice something interesting.

This Sunday, it was ex-White House political director Karl Rove who caught our interest. Rove, as you may or may not know, is now a political analyst for the “fair and balanced” network.

As part of his duties, Rove prepared a couple of electoral maps showing the current state of the union in a general-election matchup between Republican presidential nominee John McCain and Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

In the matchup between McCain and Obama, Rove’s analysis gave Nevada to Obama. That’s right: Despite the state’s voting history (Republican since 1964, except for 1992 and 1996, when Ross Perot helped give the state to Bill Clinton) Rove thinks Nevada is going to go blue, provided that Obama is the nominee.

In Rove’s poll-based McCain-Obama matchup, McCain currently has 261 electoral votes, just nine shy of the 270 required for victory. Obama has 195.

And there are some other surprises, too: While Rove gives California, Oregon, Washington state and New York to Obama, and Florida, Texas and the entire South to McCain, he lists states like New Mexico, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and even Massachusetts as tossup. Massachusetts as a tossup? Maybe that’s got something to do with Rove’s pick for one of McCain’s running mates: Ex-Bay State Gov. Mitt Romney.

When McCain is matched up against Clinton, things get even more interesting: McCain holds 241 electoral votes to Clinton’s 161. Clinton gets California, Arkansas, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts and West Virginia, while McCain gets Texas and the balance of the South. Up for grabs: Washington state, Oregon, New Mexico, Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Florida.

Oh, God. An election that may come down to Ohio and Florida? This could be ugly.

Pressed by host Chris Wallace as to who is the best candidate, Rove reluctantly replied that Clinton was the stronger choice. So we should be seeing a TV ad pretty soon in which Clinton touts Rove’s endorsement.