9:30 p.m.

• Oddly enough, I agree with the pointy-headed academics on this one.

More than 200 economists, including four Nobel prize winners, signed a letter rejecting proposals by presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and John McCain to offer a summertime gas-tax holiday.

Hey, I'm all about less taxes, but this will do NOTHING. And if we don't have any federal gas taxes, then that will hold back road construction projects -- you know, the ones with 20 guys standing around watching some other pot-bellied man in a hard had moving a digger around. Then we'll hear about how all of our roads are crumbling. In a roundabout way, it's sort of the way I feel about this recent tax rebate thing. If letting people keep more of their money is a good thing, then why does it have to be a one-time special event?

• Gag me now. Funny, because this is the first election I'll be a part of where I feel uninspired.

Voter excitement, always up before a presidential election, is pushing registration through the roof so far this year—with more than 3.5 million people rushing to join in the historic balloting, according to an Associated Press survey that offers the first national snapshot.

 

Figures are up for blacks, women and young people. Rural and city. South and North.

 

Overall, the AP found that nearly one in 65 adult Americans signed up to vote in just the first three months of the year. And in the 21 states that were able to provide comparable data, new registrations have soared about 64 percent from the same three months in the 2004 campaign.

What?

Voters are flocking to the most open election in half a century, inspired to support the first female president, the first black or the oldest ever elected.

Yeah, that's a great reason to elect someone. Oh well, it worked for Strom.