here are now 34 states which allow early in-person voting. All states accept absentee ballots. The expectation is that with so many newly registered young voters, as many as a third of all voters will have voted before election day. Think back just a few years, in both 2000 and 2004, President Bush won fully 60% of the early vote. This time round it could be something of a mirror image of the last two elections; 'nuther words it could very likely be good for Obama and the Democrats this time.


Have you noticed how, during these, the final months of the Bush administration, our President has called on the military to grow considerably more aggressive in pursuing foreign insurgents - most notably in Pakistan, where US attacks across the Afghanistan border have become an almost daily event. There's less than a week to go until election day and President Bush has ordered the military to make a dramatic escalation of the Middle Eastern conflict, launching what is apparently the first attack by U.S. troops on Syrian soil. Maybe we'll learn the real reason and need for the raid. One thing for sure, it will be another complication for the in-coming president. Perhaps the administration can explain why now. Yes, it may well be opening a new front in the war on terror, but what strange timing. It has happened just as Syria has been showing unusual cooperation and willingness to negotiate with the West. Interesting comment in the L.A Times; "Bush, it appears, is conducting yet another experiment in Middle Eastern cowboy diplomacy, with the advantage, for him, that if it all blows up, someone else will have to pick up the pieces."

"The financial world is a mess, both in the United States and abroad. Its problems, moreover, have been leaking into the general economy, and the leaks are now turning into a gusher. In the near term, unemployment will rise, business activity will falter and headlines will continue to be scary." Simply stated by that most successful of all businessmen, Warren Buffet. I take his advice; I've been buying, where appropriate, American stocks. It appears that a simple rule dictates Buffett's buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. No doubt fear is now widespread.
I doubt that anyone can really predict, with accuracy, short-term action of the stock market, but as Mr.Buffett has assessed the situationm, most major companies will be setting new record profits 5,10 and 20 years from now. I hope we can hold out until then.
A little history and comparison., Today the Dow improved by over 800 points - all in one session. During the depression on July 8, 1932, the Dow hit its low - 41!

Newsweek's cover shows a rather somber/spooky 'photo of the White House. In bold Halloween colored letters it headlines "Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue." Sub-heading, "The scary challenges facing the next president on day one." I wish the winning team well. I hope they'll be democrats.