Five weeks out: Quitting on Mitt?

David Horsey/L.A. Times

The betting crowd at Intrade is quitting on Mitt Romney.

He's attracting about 25 percent of the action, which is up three points from the weekend.

Last week, Mitt was at 27 percent.

But, that's just chump-change.

Apparently, the big donors are bailing on Mitt in favor of House and Senate races, according to the Fox Business channel.

Also, the polling numbers, particularly in the swing states where the election will be decided, keep favoring President Obama.

With substantial leads in Ohio, Florida and Virginia, it appears that Obama, barring some unforeseen calamity, could have this thing wrapped up early on Nov. 6.

If the election were held today, the networks would be calling this election for Obama a few minutes after the polls close on the West Coast.

The key is Ohio, where Obama has his biggest lead of 5.5 percent, according to the poll average at Real Clear Politics. On election night, focus on Ohio. When that state is called, hopefully for Obama, the election will be over.

All the votes in all the other states won't matter as much as they will in Ohio, where voting started today.

The other polling news out today shows Obama with a yawning 18-point lead among women voters.

While it is true that Mitt's lead among male voters is 10 percent, that number becomes less significant because far more women than men actually bother to vote.

In other news, Mitt's mate, Paul Ryan, claims only 30 percent of Americans want to live on welfare, as opposed to Mitt's 47 percent. The point is that these two men, should they be elected, will be looking to screw over the 47/30 percent of Americans. Now, that's leadership, at least the GOP variety.

Meanwhile in Pennsylvania, a judge thwarts the voter-suppression efforts of the GOP.

Republicans are always on the warpath about voter fraud, when there is little evidence that it exists at all in any significant numbers.

Except, where Republicans are attempting to commit voter fraud. The GOP was forced to fire its only vendor for registering people to vote in the swing states after substantial fraud was uncovered in Florida.

Somehow, that's not surprising.

Forward.