US election diary

* The presidential race is over, at least as far as Ireland's biggest bookmaker is concerned. Paddy Power yesterday made what it termed an "unprecedented decision" and paid out more than €1m (£777,000) early on bets that Barack Obama will be the next occupant of the White House. "We declare this race well and truly over and congratulate all those who backed Obama," the bookie said. "Although he seemed a little out of sorts in last night's final debate we believe he has done more than enough to get him across the lineon 4 November."

* Senator Obama is anything but "down and troubled" but he's not one to turn away a "helping hand", particularly when it's being extended by James Taylor. The Grammy winner is set to play five free concerts in North Carolina to support the man bidding to become America's first black president. The state may not have backed a Democratic president in more than three decades, but perhaps vintage Taylor tunes could swing the vote. "You've got a friend", Barack. Another one.

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* Meanwhile, the people McCain thought he could count on are turning out to be rather fickle. Karl Rove, the brain behind George Bush's double election whammy, says McCain must now concentrate on "threading the needle" rather than sewing up the race. " If Mr. McCain succeeds, he will have engineered the most impressive and improbable political comeback since Harry Truman in 1948," Rove writes in the Wall Street Journal. "But having to reach back more than a half-century for inspiration is not the place campaign managers want to be now." With friends like these, who needsenemies?

* The power of Obama extends to the sports field it seems. Major League Baseball has agreed to delay the start of a World Series game to make room for a half-time prime-time commercial the Democratic candidate wants to run six days before the election. "This is unprecedented in American political and sports history," said Dan Schnur, the director of politics at the University of Southern California. Baseball fans might have to wait an extra 13 minutes for the first pitch to be thrown but Obama's appearance on all the major networks just six days before the election could well be the moment when he hits McCain out ofthe ballpark.