I'll more likely appreciate the wisdom of Pericles, Keith, rather
then your wild guesses, which seldom prove accurate. Sheer luck
could prove you right or wrong, it would hardly be due to any skills.

So we'll see what the election brings, its a close race.

Obama spent his first year trying to turn around a global economy
and American banking industry that was in freefall, an auto industry
on the verge of collapse and everything in a tailspin, so he hardly
sat on his bum. Fact is that today America is doing far better
than Europe, with energy production at a record high. House building
is resuming, its only lack of confidence in the political stand off
that stops many investing more.

Don't blame Obama for that, more like an obstinate republican
controlled congress full of tea party and other fruitloops.
The power of the US president is far less than many think, he can
seek to coerce but he cannot force. That is just how the US political
system works.

*Pretty good that is at giving taxpayer money in chunks of up to half a billion*

Half a billion heh, Hasbeen? Nope, those companies have not all
gone broke btw. Let me see, Australia, 14 times smaller, is looking
at increasing foreign aid by 3 billion a year. That gives you some
perspective.

Meantime the wars started by Bush are estimated to have cost well
over 2 trillion $.

Oops Hasbeen, you must be penny wise and pound foolish.

Hi Ciaran,

Are you reading these responses and able to respond?

Would be interested to know if you noticed that in the third debate, Governor Romney reversed several of his passionately-held previous positions?

Why do you think he did this?

Does E.J. Dionne have a point, in this from yesterday's Washington Post?

"The right wing has lost the election of 2012.

"The evidence for this is overwhelming, yet it is the year’s best-kept secret. Mitt Romney would not be throwing virtually all of his past positions overboard if he thought the nation were ready to endorse the full-throated conservatism he embraced to win the Republican nomination.

"The right is going along because its partisans know Romney has no other option. This, too, is an acknowledgment of defeat, a recognition that the grand ideological experiment heralded by the rise of the tea party has gained no traction. It also means that conservatives don’t believe that Romney really believes the moderate mush he’s putting forward now. Not to put too fine a point on it, but if the conservatives are forgiving Romney because they think he is lying, what should the rest of us think?"

Interested in your response to this, Ciaran.

Thanks, AA

When will people realise that both Obama and Romney are controlled by the same interest groups in Wall St,Us Federal Reserve, Europe and Israel.

These days US Presidents are told what to say and what policies to implement.The US elections are a stage managed farce to keep the people divided and confused.Romney will most likely invade Iran and to further encircle Russia and China.

Agree with Alan and Arjay.
The article and the author demonstrate that the conformation bias is alive and well.
Romney lost ground with both the second and third debate; and indeed, with his total turnaround on so many of his so-called core beliefs?
The Republican controlled lower house have bent over backwards to stymie every one of Obama's policies, and then like the author, have the hide to blame Obama for the result!
As others have noted, there seems to be a level of fraud in American politic?
Is it a chard or not a chard?
And stories of failure to register voters, or difficulties placed in the way of those, who'se racial profiles might indicate a democratic preference?
We also know that this election will cost trillions, or be the most expensive election result in history!
Very sad, when you consider that America's Mid West is in the throes of A, very real for them, Great Depression, replete with tent cities full of unemployed homeless thousands.
Listening to some, one would conclude, a them and us debate is alive and well, or that if they have more, we will have less?
It's typical of a very simplistic me/me mindset, or poverty consciousness?
The truth is very different.
If the worst off have more, they will spend more!
They have no choice given the sheer level of unmet need!
This in turn will translate to more inventory leaving overstocked warehouses, which in turn will react, by once again placing orders with stalled manufacturers, who will react by taking on more staff, which will increase both the level of discretionary spending and tax receipts!
The greater levels of discretionary spending resulting in even greater levels of inventory leaving warehouses, who in turn will increase the orders they place with manufacturers, who in turn will take on more workers, followed by even more demand and sales!
That's how you engineer a recovery!
Austerity programs do exactly the opposite!
We can save the economy or a shrinking cohort of unearned privilege, just not both!
Obama by a nose?
Rhrosty.

Well, the major international betting sites are still showing Obama as the favourite at around 1.4 to 1, and Romney an outsider at 2.8 to 1. Given that these come from people who are prepared to risk their money, I'm inclined to think they know what they are on about. But we will see.