Obviously off-year races, as you know, Chuck, are -- and special elections are a far different breed than regularly scheduled elections on every other -- or in even-numbered years.
But, win or lose on December 21st, the days of the Netanyahu government seem to be numbered: even his own officials are saying that it has exhausted its capacity to govern.
In other words it's a heckuva a lot easier to grow a business when its revenues are numbered in the millions or even billions rather than in the tens of billions.
It would take another three years before the addition of Chivas USA in Los Angeles and Real Salt Lake took the league back to an even dozen but still the pessimists out-numbered the optimists.