By Anthony Barnett
The mood among committed democrats that I have met in New York over this weekend is highly nervous, it remains me of what it was like in London before the 1997 election. There is an intense anticipation of a good result, breaking the spell of continuous right-wing victories, combined with a fatalistic fear that from rigged voting to evangelical loyalty, the right are unbeatable.
A friend is spending $150 and a making a journey that will take the best part of a day to go to Connecticut to vote. Todd Gitlin showed me the software created by MoveOn to allow people to phone voters, called Vote for Change. Apparently a million calls have got through.
General opinion is that the Democrats will take the House of Representatives but not the Senate. The important of gaining the House is that the Democrats will be able to set up committees and hold hearings on what Bush administration has been up to for the last six years, putting the Republicans on the back foot.
What will happen then? Bush will probably hit back.
