The election can't be over soon enough partly because it interests me too much. It's a distraction. I've always been a sucker for games and political campaigns are complicated games played on a huge national board.

How and where should the candidates allocate their resources? Concentrate on the biggest swing states or wage a wider campaign? When I played Monopoly I used to spend all my money on Park Place and Boardwalk if I could get them. That never seemed to work. Maybe I should have hedged my bets on more, cheaper properties. Places like Virginia Avenue and St. James Place. I always hid a few five hundred dollar bills under the board. Not that presidential hopefuls would do anything like that.

Candidates race from state to state like tokens moving around the board. What tokens would this year's contenders be? McCain is pretty obviously the battleship, but he could be the cannon or the top hat as well. I guess Obama is the Scotty dog, which was always my favorite piece.

Where does Monopoly stand politically anyway? Did you notice it soaks the rich now? That's right, the Luxury Tax was raised from $75 to $100. On the other hand, there's no longer a progressive income tax. Rather than giving the option to pay 10% of your cash or $200 now it is just a flat $200. Talk about regressive.

Oh oh. McCain's just stopped on Community Chest. "There has been a global financial meltdown. Go directly to Washington, D.C. Pay $700 billion."

I hope Obama doesn't draw a bad chance card this weekend.

Not that elections are much like Monopoly. For example in the real political world we don't need the Go To Jail and Jail spaces. Oh wait....

One way Monopoly is exactly like a presidential campaign though....it goes on for way too long.