Greater than 11,000 and less than $3

Could it be that November 4th is only three weeks away? I have been in the Midwest (Ohio and Indiana) since last Thursday night. I now understand what it means to be in a battle ground state. In Columbus, Ohio the city looks like the political sign capital of the country. It is pretty clear who your neighbors are voting for because they have a sign in their front yard letting you and everyone else know about it. I should have taken pictures. There is no greening of political campaigns for sure...it is all about cardboard, red and blue ink and wire posts in Ohio. Indiana is not much different. And in both places the television advertising is dominated by political ads. Every commercial break has one, if not more inserted. What happens to the ad market after November 4th? But most interesting in the Midwest this week has been the (precipitous?) drop in gas prices. Regular unleaded has dropped .25 cents since last Thursday night when we landed here (I am glad I didn't take the refueling option from Hertz). All of sudden, the gas prices look reasonable again and you can almost palpably feel that at the pump. And then the Dow makes a rally yesterday of nearly 1000 points and you begin to wonder if the Washington powers are not moving us to a muffled or muzzled economy issue by November 3rd. It's hard to believe that could happen, but if we are sitting at our dinner tables on November 3rd with regular unleaded below $3 and the Dow at 11K or knocking on the door of it, then let's all just consider how things can be changed for the powers and/or the powers to be....