PUBLIC opinion polls in the United States seem to suggest it is all over bar the shouting. If Barack Obama does not win on Tuesday, it will be the biggest surprise since Harry Truman retained the Presidency exactly 60 years tomorrow.

DURING the week Bertie Ahern fell down a stairs and broke his leg. But the media was so preoccupied it hardly warranted a mention. The country has been reeling since the budget. Is that what happened to Bertie?

It was Samuel Johnson who famously proclaimed in 1775 that “patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel”.

Is it naive to think that there were only problems in Donegal?

AN Irish Press reporter was watching a police water cannon vehicle moving into position. He had never seen one in action before.

SHOULD anyone care if people were stupid enough to pay inflated prices for property in recent years? Sure, this provided employment in the construction industry and that provided extra tax revenue.

THE Progressive Democrats were suggesting this week that they are going to fold up their tent and fade away.

Charlie McCreevy had the courage to move a ‘no confidence’ motion in Charlie Haughey’s leadership in October 1982, but the great majority in the parliamentary party did not have the vision, the guts or the integrity to support his motion, so Haughey survived.

SOME have predicted that Barack Obama could turn out to be another George McGovern.

WITH the growing international tension over Georgia some have been bemoaning the lack of strong statesmen. George W Bush professes to be an ardent admirer of Winston Churchill who was man of the century for a great many people.