What Caught My Eye Today

2008 Presidential Race - In today's daily double we have early voting in Florida and Sarah Palin being Sarah Palin.

Florida kicked off early voting, with record crowds heading to the polls and voters waiting hours to cast their ballots. Elections officials said the few reported problems were minor. Oh, I'm not worried. I'm pretty sure the problems will escalate as soon as the lawyers from both campaigns get involved. Counties large and small, were reporting record turnout. The early voting sites will remain open two weeks until the weekend before Election Day. The Sunshine State is again key this election season, with a prize of 27 electoral votes — 10 percent of the 270 needed to clinch the election. Registration numbers released yesterday show a 600,000-voter edge for Democrats over Republicans in Florida: 4.7 million versus 4.1 million, with 2.1 million people identifying with neither party. The McCain campaign acknowledged it expected more Democrats than Republicans to vote early, but says GOP voters have requested 295,000 absentee ballots statewide compared with 199,000 Democrats. I'm all for making it as easy as possible for as many people to vote as we can, but there is a reason they call it Election Day. I've already been subjected to nearly two years of campaigning and by the time my state primary was held, more than half the candidates from both parties had already dropped out. Now, with all this early voting, the President may already have been determined before I ever cast my ballot. Seriously, folks. What is the rush?

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin says she supports a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, a break with John McCain who has said he believes states should be left to define what marriage is. You go, girl. What self respecting conservative wouldn't hold onto her values regardless of the circumstances it may have on your running mate's chances to get you a job that, not in a million years, you could have gotten on your own? And you have to hand it to Palin. When she gets her mind set on something, she sticks to her guns. Remind you of anyone we know? Palin also reaffirmed her view that Obama had been "palling around with terrorists" because of his association with Bill Ayers, a 1960s-era radical who helped found the violent Weather Underground group to protest the Vietnam war. And to top it all off, Palin has found yet another cause to rally the troops around--God. Palin claimed religion and God had been "mocked" during the campaign, although she offered no evidence to support that. Say what you will about her, but Palin certainly makes election news much more entertaining to read.

Economy (Part I) - The economy's health improved for the first time in five months in September as supplier deliveries and new orders strengthened. The New York-based Conference Board said its monthly forecast of future economic activity rose 0.3% percent. The index had fallen a revised 0.9% in August and 0.7% in July. I don't want to incidentally give you the impression that this is good news, because apparently it's not. A one-time jump in the money supply as the federal government undertook a series of expensive bailouts helped September's index. Economists predict that the trend is still downwards, and October's index will plunge. Down 3.3% for the year, the index is consistent with recession, and it has not hit bottom yet. So there you have it. Even good news is bad. How depressing is that?

Economy (Part II) - Here's one for the "no kidding, Sherlock" file. With little relief in sight, people are getting more anxious about the slumping economy and how it affects them. The share of people who believe the country is moving in the right direction has plunged in just a few weeks, from 28% in September to 15% in October. Wait, the gloom and doom is just getting started. At the same time there is a drop in those surveyed who say they are happy about the way things are going in their own lives. Now it is 59% who say they are personally happy, compared with 70% last month. The magnitude of the financial meltdown and its impact on the overall economy is hitting people hard across the social and economic spectrum. Strikingly, one-third are worried about losing their jobs, half fret they will be unable to keep up with mortgage and credit card payments, and seven in 10 are anxious that their stocks and retirement investments are losing value. Me personally--I'm one of those dudes in the "freaked out about all of the above" column. Though I expect my pessimism to be short lived...my latest wine club shipment just arrived. I imagine in a few short hours, things will be looking much rosier.

Baseball - I'm sure we all had this match up pegged for the World Series, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Tampa Bay Rays. The biggest thing these teams have in common is losing. The Phillies have lost more games than any franchise in professional sports, while Tampa Bay never finished higher than fourth place during its 10 seasons before this one. With power and pitching, Philadelphia beat the wild-card Brewers three games to one in the first round and dispatched the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-1 in the NLCS to win its sixth pennant and first since 1993. This is the Phillies’ 11th postseason appearance in their 126-year history. A doormat since the team’s inception in 1998, Tampa Bay had never won more than 70 games in a season before this year. But the young and athletic Rays (97-65) were baseball’s biggest surprise in 2008, winning the rugged AL East. The Rays are trying to become the first team to win a championship after finishing with the worst record in the majors the previous season. All fascinating stuff...not. Here's the important stuff that everyone needs to know...the spread. Las Vegas sports books favor the Tampa Bay Rays to win the World Series over the Philadelphia Phillies and would owe huge payouts if the American League champions prevail. Oddsmakers say enough bettors took the Rays early in the year at long-shot prices to force books to adjust lines to encourage bets on the Phillies.