A week from tomorrow Australians will be trying to pick the Melbourne Cup winner while the people of the United States of America vote in their own two-horse race.
The US Presidential election is one of the more fascinating in recent times, given the state of the world economy and the complete contrast in the two candidates.
The US President is generally considered the most powerful person in the world, and the outgoing George W Bush has demonstrated just what kind of a mess can result if the job falls into the wrong hands.
Mr Bush will go down in history as arguably the worst US President, with forces bogged down in Iraq after an ill-conceived invasion based on the false assertion that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction (and the fanciful expectation that Iraqis would joyously welcome their "liberators" from the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein).
Mr Bush has also presided over a domestic banking and credit disaster that has taken the international financial system to the precipice.
It would be fair to say that under Mr Bush's stewardship the good name of the US has been tarnished.
Even Mr Bush's first Secretary of State, Colin Powell, who served three Republican administrations, says it will be up to the next President "to fix the reputation that we've left with the rest of the world".
Mr Powell made the comment while endorsing the Democrat candidate Barack Obama as the man to lead the US over his own party's candidate, John McCain.
The US election result will have enormous ramifications around the world, but naturally only Americans get to choose their leader.
But what would happen if the rest of the world could vote in the US election? After all, you could argue that we've all got a stake in the result, so shouldn't the world's opinion count for something?
Interestingly, there is a website that is giving people in other countries the opportunity to express their view.
You can find it at www.iftheworldcouldvote.com and it gives a fascinating, if completely unscientific, insight.
Three guys from Iceland set up the website for a bit of interest and fun.
When I last checked the site, votes were approaching 400,000 from around 200 countries.
Senator Obama was overwhelmingly ahead, with 87.5 per cent of the votes.
Interesting only one nation - Macedonia - favoured Senator McCain, with 82 per cent of the 406 Macedonians who had voted favouring the Republican candidate.
More than 13,000 Australians had registered, with votes running 92 per cent in favour of Sen Obama. It was a similar story in Britain.
Of course none of this means anything in the real vote.
From this distance, the outcome looks like a no-brainer. It's a choice between the past and the future - between 72-year-old Sen McCain, who is closely aligned with the Bush era, and 47-year-old Sen Obama, who appears intelligent, articulate and reasonable.
Polls have consistently favoured Sen Obama, but as any Melbourne Cup punter knows only too well, favourites don't always win.
One thing is certain, though. If Sen McCain does get up on the first Tuesday in November, there will be a lot of disappointed punters around the world.
Nick Hartgerink is a former Mercury editor who now runs his own media consultancy business.