The early voting lines lengthen as Nov. 4 approaches. The finger-pointing becomes angrier. The Republican blame game grows louder. The polls, one by one, highlight double-digit divides between first-place Barack Obama and lagging John McCain.

Gov. Sonny Perdue and other Republican notables have dropped from sight. The odor of roasted lame duck is in the air.

Nearly every sign points to an Obama presidential victory -- not just an ordinary win, but one of historic proportions -- a sweep, if you will.

What would you do?

Georgia’s gasoline pumps have all but run dry. Prices have soared at the few stations still in business. The state’s unemployment rate is running ahead of the national jobless rate, which is over 6 percent and rising.

The state budget has a $1.5 billion to $2 billion hole in it, thanks to some unrealistic economic forecasting and a steep dip in revenue collections. And Georgia is among the top five states in home foreclosures and personal bankruptcies.

Our governor should consider taking a page from Alaska Gov. Sarah
Palin's playbook -- sell a state airplane or two and try to hold down
flying. With aviation fuel selling at nearly $6 a gallon, state
officials might be surprised at the savings a grounding order would
bring.

Instead, in Georgia officialdom, it's fly, fly, fly. And nothing's
too good for the upkeep of the state's fleet of planes and helicopters.
The state is spending $600,000 on a state-of-the-art hangar at Charlie
Brown Airport.

Let's hear it for Kathy Cox. The Georgia schools superintendent won
$1 million in Hollywood on the TV quiz show, "Are You Smarter than a
5th Grader?"

She says she plans to give some of the prize money to the state's
special-needs schools. That is truly magnanimous. It will help restore
some of the funds her predecessor stole from the state education
department to pay for a facelift and finance her campaign for governor.

Kathy deserves full credit and our congratulations for finally making Georgia look good on national TV.

You will never see me write again that the Republican Party is the dumb party. Corrupt maybe, or hypocritical or tobacco roadish, but never dumb.

The selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate was the slickest tactical move I have seen in politics. It took the wind right out of the Democrats’ sails and swept Barack Obama’s name out of the headlines. As soon as Palin was announced, that hissing sound you heard was the air going out of the donkeys’ momentum.

Though, for the life of me, I cannot picture in my mind’s eye the Hillary Clinton supporter who would switch to the McCain-Palin ticket because of the perception that Sarah has replaced Hillary as the women voters’ champion. Hillary’s supporters are mostly Democrats and Independents. Sarah is an extreme Republican and a strong antidepressant for the GOP’s evangelical bloc. The right-wing church folks seemed a bit down after maverick McCain, a sometimes pro-choice guy, won the primaries and the nomination. They ought to be feeling a whole lot better now that Palin, an unconditional anti-abortionist, is on board.

Former Gov. Roy Barnes may have thrown more red meat on the table against Republicans than all the national Democrats put together at the Denver convention.

Maybe that’s why Barnes didn’t get much TV time. He sounded as tough as Zell Miller talking about Democrats. But Barnes didn’t get around to challenging anyone to a duel as Miller did four years ago.

A newsletter report and interview on Barnes’ performance this year will have to suffice. At a gathering of the Georgia delegation in Denver last week, “Barnes delivered a stemwinder to wake up the delegates at their breakfast meeting, excoriating the Republican-majority Legislature for the ‘stench’ it has caused at the Capitol, and slamming Gov. Sonny Perdue for mismanagement of the state budget,” reported Tom Baxter of the Southern Political Report newsletter.

Only in Georgia …

State School Superintendent Kathy Cox flies to Hollywood to appear on the TV game show, “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” (Answer: probably not.) Meanwhile, her predecessor, Linda Schrenko, cools her heels in a federal prison for stealing a bundle from — where else? — the state education department.

Gov. Sonny Perdue finally gets his helicopter pilot’s license. Now he can fly daily over the ground-bound peasantry trudging its way to work in lowly cars. He also zips off to China again. Wonder why he keeps going to China. Is there something we don’t know?

State Sen. Mitch Seabaugh convenes a House panel to consider expanding the freedom to pack guns in Georgia. An “expert” witness testifies that the law ought to make it OK for adults to carry guns into schools, churches and other public places — even if they have criminal drug records. Georgia law already makes it legal for civilians to carry concealed weapons into airports and many other public and private places.

Unfortunately for their hopefuls, Democrats may be getting ready to party like it’s 1988.

The Democrats open their convention in Denver Monday to launch Barack Obama against the GOP establishment guy, John McCain. The donkeys are already singing “Happy Days Are Here Again.” The Denver convocation promises to be a wild but premature victory party.

Remember 1988? Twenty years ago thousands of happy Democrats rolled into Atlanta for the big A’s first (and last) national political convention.

The most overlooked Georgia political development since the 2006 election may well be the increasing level of partisanship in our secretary of state's office.

Most Georgians don't think about their secretary of state very often. If they do, they interact with the office in one of its more mundane functions, which include issuing licenses for trades like cosmetology and serving as the filing agency for corporate records.

Those responsibilities, however, are not what give the position its real power. That comes from the secretary of state's regulation and administration of our elections. When one controls the process of choosing all of our other elected leaders, one has the ability to fundamentally influence the direction of our government.

It’s time to keep one eye on your bank account and another on our friends at the state Capitol. Times are tough, and Gov. Sonny Perdue, fresh off his junket to China, is circling like a shark, looking for additional cash for state government. Perdue fired the initial shot last week when he suggested that the state end $400 million in annual property tax relief that dates from the administration of Gov. Roy Barnes. Frankly, Republican Perdue has been hostile to the Democrat Barnes’ property tax relief since taking office, having proposed ending it in his first budget in 2003. Perdue was stopped only by a bipartisan revolt among legislators. With the state sinking deeper into the red, he’s taking another shot at eliminating the tax relief, and will likely succeed.