J.D. JOHANNES EMAILS:

Chrome rims. 22’s, 24’s, spinners…for when you need to travel down the silk road in in full G style.

I’ve been out on the streets of Kabul again. This time as I was walking with my interpreter/fixer I spotted shiny chrome tire rims in a block full of shops selling car parts.

(See attached pic)

I wonder what the Taliban thinks of 24-inch spinning rims?

The election campaign is its closing days. Under Afghan law, if no candidate gets above 50%, there is a run off. It is looking like a runoff and I may be back here again working the elections again soon.

Some people are expecting civil unrest…but I’m not seeing it at this point. It would take an outright win by Karzai to cause that…and not even his machine can stuff that many ballot boxes. In the recent polls, he’s running only 35%…and this with an oversample of Pashtuns, his ethnic base in the poll.

So, it looks like extra innings.

This report says 45%, but we’ll see. I’m guessing that Afghan polling is less than perfectly reliable.