The Presidential Race Now, from Holland

You can get the Herald Tribune here, and the European Wall Street Journal, although purchasing them at the newsstand every day will probably be too expensive. But until we get back on line at home they'll have to do, together with several other international papers. That's one great thing about Amsterdam: you can get your reading materials from all over the world fresh, daily. Relying on just the Dutch media won't do: there's not enough regular coverage, and it's not all good. About the race: how can it be so close? There's something one could talk about to local observers, many of whom seem to think an Obama victory is virtually assured. Part of the answer (as I wrote for the GDP papers last month) is that McCain has indeed gone negative now. Other reasons will have to wait, because at my Amsterdam coffeeshop I just get a warning that there's just 90 seconds of internet time left.