Current Electoral Vote Predictor 2004

The Current Electoral Vote Predictor 2004 is a site I look at daily now, thanks to its RSS feed. It's interesting as a foreigner to see that an election that appears to be being declared a tie in the US media isgoing a little more decisively than that: "Electoral Vote Predictor 2004:   Kerry 301   Bush 213"
The site is run by a Democrat supporter, but his reporting of the polls is non-partisan. I'd pay a visit if I were you.

I've resisted making too many posts on the US election as my thinking was it doesn't really concern me, and I know most readers of the site are American and I don't want to offend.
However, over the past few weeks I've begun to realise it actually does concern me - the result will have a real effect on me, my friends and my country.

Though this isn't a political blog at the moment I may start voicing my views a bit more as November draws near. I don't know much about Kerry (although ironically I think more Britons know more about him than many Americans, judging from polls I've seen!) but I do know enough about Bush to know I'll be staying up late that night in the hope of waving goodbye to him.
The farce of the 2000 election was watched with bemusement and outrage over here, and the electoral college system seems an odd way to decide something in a democracy - even with the discounted votes in Florida set aside, Gore still won a majority of votes. (We've had similar results in the UK, by the way, so I won't preach too much!)

I've never known a US president be so unpopular abroad - does it matter to Americans that this is the case? Maybe not, and maybe it shouldn't. But as Bush is making such a big thing about being the leader of the free world, it is more important than ever that he is seen to be in such a role with the consent of that free world. At the moment, and for the past four years, that has been far from the case.

Whatever the result, it needs to be decisive. Please.