The consistent message across all groups is that very few people beat the market with any consistency in the long-term, and that passive investing using low-cost index funds is a superior way to manage money.

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At a certain point, voters seem to have lost interest in the message and, now that the long-term budget picture is doing much better while the economics of austerity has come under fire, the issue is gaining even less voter traction.

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But in America, where oversight has long been a fact of life, the government's message is clear: when it comes to company e-mail, unions are sacred.

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Picking an outsider, analysts say, could send a strong message that Pope Francis is determined to mount a purge of the insiders who have long dominated Curia ranks.

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Only Ron Paul, who has long had an outside-the-establishment message and following, is big on Meetup, with more than 700 groups and about 88, 000 members using the site to connect.

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But the Obama team clearly thinks that overkill is a risk worth taking so long as they are driving their message home and keeping Mr McCain in the shadows.

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Even Takatoshi Ito, an economist at Tokyo University and long a critic of the bank, says that Mr Fukui is at last sending the right message.

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