I'm glad someone suggested turangawaewae...I find that word fits when no other word will, when I'm struggling to describe the ex-pat relationship to NZ. I find myself reaching for the word mana a lot here too and not being able to find a good English substitute.

Re the Robocalls - SO SO annoying. I struggle to see how even a crazy person would be convinced to vote for someone on the basis of a robo call. Especially with the voice that's used - it's like an action movie trailer.
Here we come home and have at least one sometimes two McCain robocalls on our voice mail a day. On the other hand, I have only had one very nice personal Obama call and I'm thinking because we are a proud Obama household they crossed us off the list because we haven't had another call.

The ratio of beautiful glossy brochures does favor Obama about 3 to 1 though. They clearly have the support of the beautiful glossy pamphlet makers.

All I ever hear about when I talk to colleagues and friends in Virginia is about 'oh but aren’t there horrible waiting lists', and ‘isn't the medical care really bad?' This issue seems such a no brainer to me and no matter how good the medical care is here (if you can pay for it), you will never ever convince me that private health care is better.

I have had very good experiences with the health care system here, but it has cost me through the nose, even with pretty good health insurance.

I think that Fox news thing taps into two great fears Americans have, immigrants and anything government controlled.

Just to add my two cents as an ex pat kiwi living in Virginia where the impact of this massacre has been particularly profound. I have been surprised how the gun control issue has barely come up in conversations with colleagues about the massacre. I don't think people relate the two issues which still seems crazy to me, even after living here for a number of years.

I had two incidents in the first couple of years I was living here that gave me a fairly good picture of what the gun culture is really like here. Firstly I was at a church meeting and a friend of mine who is a police Sergeant adjusted his shirt and i realized he was carrying his gun off duty in the church meeting and simply did not understand why I was slightly freaked by that!

The second thing occurred when the gun control issue came up with a few friends, one of whom is a local pediatrician. She confirmed that she owned and at times carried a hand gun. At that point i pretty much gave up ever even attempting to understand the gun carrying mentality here, it is simply unfathomable to me. Also, despite living and breathing Virginia culture for four or five years, I am still repulsed by this attitude, even as i begin to understand it more.

I understand where you are coming from to a degree James, I often feel a little like I'm medaiting between my New Zealand friends and family who make blanket assumptions about America all the time, and my American friends and husband who get very defensive about those assumptions.

A copule of things to add to the discussion. A large number of my Republican friends here are very disillusioned with the war in Iraq, it is certainly not just a democratic thing. I have a close friend who works for reelected Republican Thelma Drake for example, who thinks we shouldn't even still be there. The other thing that has to be remembered is that a huge number of the new democrats are really really conservative, and they're not idiots about Iraq, Virginia's Jim Webb being an example. I'm not expecting huge changes at all, but I agree it will be interesting to see how this result affects the 2008 election.

In relation to Virginia, they're reporting that Allen will have to request a recount, the gap is large enough for that. There was talk today around the office, by people of both persuasion, that a number of the absentee votes still to be counted are military (Norfolk is the biggest naval base in the world), but they don't think it'll be enough to change the result. I'm just hoping that's the case.

I'm afraid I'm with Hamish, I think that it will be a lot closer then people think. I'm in Virginia, a state that has voted for a Republican president every presidential election since 1962 and even though they voted in a democratic governor last year, I'm not sure they will change their spots and kick out Republican George Allen. Also, there is a stupid gay marriage amendment on the ballot which won't help things.

The only bit of encouragement I see is that my very conservative 78 year old mother in law who voted for George Bush basically because her Southern Baptist church told her to, is voting democrat this election, as she says they really need a change in the House and Senate (but she is still voting for the gay marriage ban - go figure).
I definitely think the democrats will pick up a number of seats, I'm just not sure they're formidable enough to beat the impressive Republican machine.