by Evie Stone

Good morning! 5 days to go, the markets are psyched about yesterday's Fed rate cut, and congratulations to the Phils.

Barack Obama's much-touted 30-minute informercial aired last night on three broadcast networks and several cable channels. It had very smooth production values, provided a blizzard of information about the candidate's plans for his potential administration, and allowed Obama to get personal with voters now accustomed to seeing him address huge crowds. But what did undecided voters think? We have absolutely no idea, and no one else seems to want to speculate about that either. But was that even the point? Or was the idea to keep fanning enthusiasm among those who signed on with Obama months ago and whose patience for the endless campaign is in danger of waning? A few reviews of the giant buy as TV entertainment here, here, and here.

The McCain campaign sniffed at the television spectacular, with the candidate saying it was "paid for with broken promises" and spokesman Tucker Bounds writing to reporters, "as anyone who has bought anything from an infomercial knows, the sales-job is always better than the product. Buyer beware." (Apparently Tucker Bounds does not cotton to the idea of set it and forget it.)

 

On a related note, McCain and the RNC have returned to the inexperience argument against Obama in these closing days, citing untrained surgeons, worsening storms, and guaranteed crises in their recent ads. And as our David Greene reported this morning, on the trail yesterday McCain tried to steer at least part of the conversation from the economy to his strength: national security. But it may be tough for McCain to keep voters' minds on foreign policy given today's news about the shrinking GDP.

Early voters are turning out en masse this year — in more than 30 states that allow early voting without an excuse, some 16 million Americans — fully a quarter of registered voters — have already cast ballots at malls, supermarkets, college campuses, and community centers. Officials expect about a third will weigh in before November 4th. Some have reportedly waited in line for as long as nine hours as glitches get worked out with the machinery. The early voting could diminish some of the usual election-day concerns over bad weather, inconvenient shifts, or waning motivation. It also allows some people to mentally set aside the all-consuming campaign and get on with their regular lives. So far, Democrats seem to constitute the majority of early voters, thanks in part to a huge push from the Obama organization. But don't forget that the GOP machine will really clank into action in that final 72 hours. Karl Rove himself beseeched Republicans this morning to ignore the dire-seeming numbers and get out the vote...saying that in both 2000 and 2004 the pre-election polls got it wrong. (No mention of 2006 there, Ambinder notices.)

And finally, TNR reports that after nearly two years of covering this election, the journos on the plane are running out of story ideas and operating on a thin margin of sanity. Says the NYT's Matt Bai, "it's just not a normal human experience." Most are eager to get back to regular daily life...grocery shopping, movies, TiVo, exercise. But the end of the frenzy comes with existential questions. Newsweek blogger Andrew Romano wonders, "who am I after this election?" (You're James Stockdale! No, wait, Snoop Dogg. Well...maybe you should ask these guys.)