We Owe China $500 Billion??

It's Saturday morning here in Dublin, and we're curled up on the couch watching McCain and Obama speak.

"IT'S ON: THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE" proclaims the bottom of the screen. Instant goosebumps! --- it's all unfurling so quickly from now until November 4th.

What's really interesting is that there's a live feed of the debate on two channels here: Sky News, an English-language news channel, and TG4, the Irish-language TV station. Maybe it's just because it's 2:30 AM here on a Saturday, and there's not much else to broadcast to the sleepy people here, but it really seems like Ireland wants to engage itself in the U.S. presidential campaign. We're not complaining! And, uncannily, McCain just compared America's business tax rate to that of Ireland's. That'll be all over the papers tomorrow!

They call Obama "the Hopemonger" here in magazines and Op-Ed columns. It's absolutely clear that Ireland, and most of Europe that I've heard of, wants to see him succeed. On our first day here, during our orientation program, we were told that Ireland likes to consider itself "closer to Boston than Berlin" in terms of its cultural relevance and political leanings. That becomes more evident by the day.

What an election to be voting in, and what a time to be abroad!