Obama-mania
Being an experienced and somewhat cynical politician I have been habitually challenging the notion that Barack Obama will win the US Presidential election.
I could cite a dozen reasons why his campaign would be derailed by the Republican machine turning the hope of his supporters into bitter disappointment.
But with one week to go, and not tempting fate and all that, all the signs tell me that he is going to win, and win big.
His campaign has stayed doggedly on message, his opponents are all over the place, and he has a phenomenal campaign organisation.
As well as good poll numbers, which do have a margin of error, the anecdotal evidence of the excitement his campaign has generated tells us he will get a good turnout.
There is also a ‘winner factor’ in elections. People do like to get out and cast their vote for a winning candidate so they can claim their stake in the victory, whilst those backing a clear loser have little incentive to mobilise.
How exciting. Almost enough for me to cast aside my grumpiness about having to spend so much time following the US elections 
(as with much UK-US resentment this is in large part a reflection of our envy at the US being more important than us).
Surely, only Diebold can save McCain now.
I hope you are right. I have been fascinated by his campaign – and you are bang on about his ability to stay on message (not quite the case of his VP candidate).
But will the polls come true? I have a feeling that we might be on the edge of our seats for New Mexico or Nevada…
Lines for early voting in Cleveland have been out the door for the last week. The rules in Ohio were recently changed to allow early voting and absentee voting for everyone. It seems to have payed off for both the democrats and the board of election which is hoping this will ease major problems on election day. A few areas to remain watchful… when I voted in the primary, my polling location was in a locked building that was supposed to have a doorman but he left early… also, when I finally got in the building, my electronic voting machine had to be rebooted 3 times before I could vote, the board of elections never returned my call and it took us about 3 months to reach a semi-official count… Things seemed to have improved and we have returned to paper ballots this time. I am cautiously optimistic. I plan to work the polls on election day and see this thing through!