DUBLIN - It's American election all the time here in Ireland where interest is at record levels as we face into the home stretch in the 2008 race.

If I had a dollar last week for the number of times that people have asked me about the election and who I think will win I would be a rich man.

Quite simply, the interest in Ireland is phenomenal. On Thursday night, during the acceptance speech by Senator John McCain I flicked through the channels in my hotel. Everyone from the Al Jazeera channel to German television to Italian, Irish and British channels was covering the speech live, even though it was three in the morning local time.

I held learned discussions on Senator Barack Obama's economic policy and on McCain's stance on immigration with perfect strangers who struck up casual conversations.

The local political scene in Ireland hardly seemed to matter as they discussed the race to the wire in the U.S. Of course the selection of Governor Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate sparked off a frenzy of speculation as to its impact, and a little local pride as her Irish roots were revealed.

It is clear that the Irish are pulling for Obama and cannot understand the current in American political thought that would deny him the White House. After all, they point out, President George Bush is the most unpopular ever. How could the Republicans still win the election, especially in the face of such a young and brilliant candidate who readily draws comparisons to John. F. Kennedy?

McCain, however, is not your average Republican. His selection of Palin has allowed the long time senator to portray his ticket as a pair of outsiders and mavericks running against the entrenched status quo in Washington.

It is an audacious strategy that defies logic given that McCain and many of his key backers are part and parcel of the Republican stranglehold on the White House for much of the past two decades.

But McCain's compelling life story and his adroit selection of Palin have made this race a toss up again.

Just as Americans begin to tune in after Labor Day, the party of power suddenly is managing to transform itself once again as the outside the Beltway alternative.

What I learned in Ireland is that whether they can succeed is of vital interest, not just in the U.S. but all over the world and, perhaps, especially Ireland.

The Irish are an intensely political race. Just witness the fact that they essentially invented modern American politics through Tammany Hall and the big city political machines.

The Irish used politics as their stepping-stone. They came in Famine ships, but success in their chosen field meant the tribe could prosper.

Thus the importance of politics was self-evident from the very beginning. Winning the White House in 1960 with John F. Kennedy was the culmination of a struggle that started with Famine ships and ended with the presidency.

Hardly surprising then that for as long as modern democracy is around, the Irish have considered politics the equivalent of a blood sport, whether it be in their native land or among their sons and daughters overseas. The twists and turns in this year's American election which would look audacious in a Hollywood script is very much grist to the mill.

The fact that all four candidates on the ticket this year have some Irish roots is not coincidental. Even allowing for that, however, the interest this year seems far greater than ever.

The rise of Obama was a catalyst of course, although there is much sympathy among the Irish for Senator Hillary Clinton, who is fondly remembered here as well as her husband for their role in the peace process.

In the final analysis you really have to travel overseas to see how important to the world the next American president is. It will not only be in America that millions are tuned in on November 4 to see who the next leader of the free world is.