The polls have swung in John McCain's favor since his masterstroke selection of Sarah Palin. Or have they? While Ohio, North Carolina, and Virginia trend in McCain's direction, Canada, Italy, and France are firmly in the Barack Obama camp. In fact, respondents in 22 countries overwhelmingly favored Obama. In not a single foreign nation surveyed by the BBC did poll takers favor McCain. We, the people of the world, will like you better, the poll's veiled threat goes, if you vote for the American presidential candidate we, the non Americans, want. Is there a more compelling argument for McCain than that the French, Mexicans, and Chinese favor his opponent?

Personally, I would love it if Obama were running for office in Canada, Italy, France or, for that matter, his beloved Germany.

They can have him. And his politics would play better in those countries anyway.

I was talking to a co-worker the other day who was telling me about her trip to Budapest months ago. She was excited to explain that people in that city and the country never spoke of the GOP ticket but only of Obama and Hillary. She took this as a sign that only they really matter because foreigners didn't even regard the others.

How can you argue with logic like that?