I'm still bewildered by people saying that Bush comes across as an attractive and likeable man. I mean, I can imagine how someone might prefer his politics to those of Gore. I can envisage that they might dislike Gore even more - but actually liking that sniggering nudge-nudge barroom bore... In the words of Victor Meldrew "I just don't believe it."

If Bush wins I'll still refuse to believe anything other than that millions of Americans held their nose and voted for him the way they did for Nixon, for purely political reasons. At least nobody ever said Nixon was likeable did they?

The other thing that puzzles me is how people who have clearly thought about these things talk about third party candudates in a way that suggests they don't understand how the electoral system works. (They do it in my country too - I'm not making snide comments about Americans here.)

Except for those living in the small number of States where there is a close contest between Gore and Bush, it makes absolutely no difference who you vote for. You had much better vote for the person you like best, whoever that is. So far as electing a president the only thing that matters is the number of electoral votes he gets - it makes no difference whatsoever if he gets fewer popular votes than his opponenet, and that has happened several times already.