Waiting . . .

Today has that anticipatory tension: something big is about to happen, and we are just waiting. Can't do anything but wait, and yet the consequences are enormous. Like the night before D-Day invasion of Normandy, or the big break for an unknown singer called to fill in for the ailing star at the Metropolitan Opera.

1. Wall Street is waiting to see what the Senate does today, and then the House tomorrow, about the economy. Looks like the Senate has put in some stuff to appeal to Republicans but risks losing some Democrats in the House (tax breaks). At this point, I'm back to being confused about whether it's really necessary and whether this is the right way to go.

2. We're all waiting to see how the Biden-Palin debate turns out. Both camps, and the press, are playing the "expectations" game for all its worth (and more). It's becoming clear, from her debate history on the much smaller stage of Alaska, that Palin is not going to just roll over and look dumb. What we can expect is that she's the master of the non-answer and the side-step to talk in grand generalities about what she believes in and what she's against. And she can be charming, witty, and vicious in attack mode.

So, if you're impressed by that, as many people will be, you'll be wowed by her.

But if you like intelligence, knowledge, thoughtfulness, ability to stay on the subject and actually answer questions, then we'll have our worst fears confirmed about her obvious, dangerous unsuitability to be that one heartbeat away . . .

Gwen Ifill can do a lot to try to hold her to the questions and, if she won't, make that very obvious. It's good that she's the moderator.

3. The other sense of waiting is what's beginning to feel like a groundswell for Obama in the polls. My favorite electoral tracking site FiveThirtyEight now has Obama leading in all of the battleground states, with the exception of: NC and IN as toss-ups; and MO tilting ever so slightly to McCain. This adds up to electoral 336 to 202. And the people who actually put money on it at InTrade are similar at 338 to 200.

I try to calm my excitement, remembering the ups and downs of polls. But my gut tells me that we're seeing the swell toward a landslide victory for Obama. Look where we are, besides the polls: by consensus, Obama won the debate on McCain's preferred topic; he now looks better vis a vis the economic recovery package, calmly working effectively behind the scenes, not trying to steal the limelight, letting the process work, looking presidential; McCain looks awful physically, besides having fatally damaged his "brand" of honest straight-talk; he got testy in an interview with Des Moines newspaper board; more and more conservative pundits are saying negative things about him and Palin. Add in the two main factors that decide elections: the economy and the duration and popularity of the incumbent. It should be a landslide.

And at least so far we aren't seeing the SwiftBoat type of ads on a large scale. Maybe they're saving them for the last week; but that wasn't what they did before.

All in all, it's a waiting feeling, but the kind that feels more like excited anticipation than anxious worry. Dare we hope? At long last, dare we hope that the Bush nightmare is almost over?

Ralph