US election diary

* A white supremacist group has peppered a New Jersey neighbourhood with a political leaflet asking: "Do You Want A Black President?" The leaflet was from the New Jersey-based League of American Patriots, which notes on its website that membership is "restricted to adult heterosexual men and women who are entirely of European Christian ancestry." The flyer asks: "Why should we seal our fate by allowing a Black ruler to destroy us?"

* Amherst is America's top ranked liberal college, where students wererecently told they could earn "credits" for volunteering for Barack Obama in the battleground state of New Hampshire. "If you're scared about the prospects for this election, you're not alone," a college chaplain informed students by email last week. The history department would give two credits for student volunteers, he announced. Not so fast. Fox News gleefully tells us that, after media inquiries, university officials have slapped down the enthusiastic chaplain.

* Al Sharpton is another Reverend with politics on his mind. After opportunistically endorsing Hillary Clinton for president, (when it seemed she would win the nomination) he's desperate to get back onside with the Obama campaign. Sharpton's penance is a month-long bus trip to register black voters for the election push.