With less than 40 days until the election and the U.S. going to hell in a handbasket, America needs Howard Fineman now more than ever. That according to, well, Howard Fineman.

Here's how he opened his first entry in his new Newsweek blog, "Race to the Finish.":

Is it just me or does everything seem to be broken?

Our credit markets are scared of their own shadows. Our political system looks oxymoronic. Our balance sheet is drowning in red ink. We are dismissed, laughed at or reviled in much of the world. The Russian Navy is sailing into our hemisphere. No one trusts anyone else, especially in the media, to tell the truth.

It's the perfect moment for me to start a presidential campaign blog!

Yes, folks, no burden is too heavy to bear for the busy Newsweek staffer and MSNBC contributor:

I already do everything but skywriting: columns in the magazine and on the web, reporting on MSNBC, publishing a book on American politics. But I can’t resist wanting to write more, because this campaign – this moment – is too damned compelling.

America’s fate and future always are at stake, but rarely so vividly and urgently. Trends always surface, but rarely with such force.

Fineman turned the rest of his September 26 blog post to casting a pall over the American economy, while suggesting that an Obama loss could come from swing states like Michigan denying Obama victory due to racial animosity:

The sordid tale of Detroit's recently resigned mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, would complicate Obama's task. And Michigan has a history: George Wallace first emerged as a national - as opposed to Southern-force by winning the Michigan Democratic primary in 1964. "A lot of those voters, and their children, are still around," one partygoer told me.

—Ken Shepherd is Managing Editor of NewsBusters