US voters hope change brings respite.

The McCain team are still punting the hope that they can win this thing but, as the recriminations are already starting to break out, one has to think that, barring something awful and unforeseen, Obama has this one in the bag.

Mark McKinnon, who had been a key member of McCain's team during the nomination battles but then left, told the Politico website: "If you really want to see what 'going negative' is in politics, just watch the back-stabbing and blame game that we're starting to see."

His team is bracing itself for an 8,200-word article in tomorrow's New York Times magazine about the McCain inner circle, based on interviews with half-a-dozen top advisers. Arguments within the camp range from the message to be pursued in the final stretch to whether it was a blunder to appoint Sarah Palin as his running-mate.

Meanwhile, all the signs are that the current economic upheaval is driving voters away from Republicans and towards the Democratic ticket. Perhaps this is why McCain's continual attempt to link Obama to Ayers simply isn't working this time. Times are too serious for Americans to be scared into voting against their own economic interests, which is how the Republicans normally manage to win elections.

James Clark, president of the IUE-CWA, the industrial arm of the Communications Workers of America, which operates at the GM plant, argues the downturn has forced workers to acknowledge where their real economic interest lies. "We have in our manufacturing facilities a substantial number of Republican workers, but they are waking up. They have seen their family members lose their jobs. They have seen workers in their plants lose their jobs," he said. Before the downturn, he estimated 50% of Dayton's manufacturing workers were Democrats. Now, after talking to workers outside the plant gates, he is convinced the figure is closer to 70%.

Like everyone else, the thought of a McCain presidency doesn't bear thinking about and I'll only believe the Republicans have gone when I see Obama standing in the Oval Office, but there is an unmistakable air of gloom surrounding the McCain campaign these days, and the distinct feeling that the writing is on the wall.

Peters finally made her mind up last Sunday after the former secretary of state Colin Powell came out for Obama.

"I don't think that McCain is in touch with the needs of the new American family. I just don't think he is in touch with today's struggles, today's economy, today's younger people. This is not my grandma's economy anymore. Unfortunately, I think that is where John McCain is in his mindset."

Obama should win this election in a landslide and I am always astonished that there is anyone left who is even thinking of voting for McCain.

And, although Obama is already leading in the polls, I still think that, come election day, the skills of Obama the community organiser will come to the fore.

One of the cultural inside baseball games of campaign staffs, especially one as data-driven as the Obama campaign, is that everywhere you go there's a competition for numbers. Regional field directors must beat other regional field directors for doors knocked. One state must beat another for voter contacts. Individual field organizers must beat others in their office for dials. The competition is friendly but fierce. It's a pride thing.

It was his campaign's organisational skills which beat Hillary as much as anything else, and it is these skills which will come to the fore on election day.

Palin, in her speech to the Republican convention, mocked the notion of Obama as "a community organiser", but I think both she and McCain have much to fear from Obama's considerable skills at organising people and getting them to the polls.

It's not over until the fat lady sings, but she's already in the dressing room and her dulcet tones can be heard through the door.

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Tags: McCain, Obama, US election 2008