Game, set . . . .

. . . . and maybe match. I didn't watch the second presidential debate but the trading on Intrade suggested that Obama got the upper hand, even if that wasn't clear until the debate was over. The general verdict was that Obama won by risking nothing and making no blunders and that McCain lost because he failed miserably in his efforts to make any serious inroad into Obama's pre-debate edge. A more cynical view was provided by Tom Belvan of RealClearPolitics:

"Ninety minutes later, both John McCain and Barack Obama departed the plush, red-carpeted stage at Belmont University having sleepwalked through one of the most boring, least informative, most poorly moderated debates in recent memory."

It is amazing that America can spend so much time selecting the person to their highest office and yet go through the whole process without seriously discussing monumentially pressing issues. America is about to elect a man with astonishingly little experience and who has revealed little of substance about what he really thinks and about what he really will do when he occupies the highest office in the land. So much for the process.

At any rate, Barack Obama's popular vote lead inched up yet again according to a plethora of polls released over the past 24 hours:

The small day-to-day change means that there was little change among the current swing states: