Stretching to the wire

We are down to the nuts and bolts of the end game over at GP BS - GOTV & voter turnout.

The President's 'safe districts' tour is showing all the finesse of his war planning. Does Bush have an election exit strategy? The scramble is on across the country to drive up voter turnout. more...

Elsewhere the vote seems to be already in - My Australian media are having a good chuckle, but weren't counted in a foreign roundup on Bush support.

In Britain, 69 per cent of those questioned said they believed US policy has made the world less safe since 2001. Only 7 per cent thought action in Iraq and Afghanistan had improved global security.

In Canada and Mexico - 62 per cent of Canadians and 57 per cent of Mexicans saying the world had become more dangerous because of US policy.

In Israel, only one in four said that Mr Bush had made the world safer. Voters in three of the four countries overwhelmingly rejected the decision to invade Iraq, with only Israeli voters in favour, 59 per cent to 34 per cent against. Like I say, Australian media are just quietly chortling

Our local radio news here in BC Canada ran a story about a Seattle bus driver, fired for giving Bush the finger. The presenters were quick to invite her North for a job - "Our kind of woman!" they said. The story comes of Bush's safe districts tour, I'm not sure what they expected to get, but I don't think it was this:

President Bush is visiting carefully chosen districts and states he won handily in 2004 where his aides believe he can provide pivotal help.

But is anywhere safe? In Seattle a school bus driver was fired after giving Bush the finger.

The 43-year-old driver, whose name was not released, was driving middle school children back to school after a zoo visit when the president and Republican Rep. Dave Reichert drove slowly by in a motorcade.

The district said the driver was not fired for giving him the finger, she was fired for making the gesture in front of students.