The clock reads 4:18 a.m. It's a Sunday, when most people who work Monday through Friday would normally sack out for a couple more hours.

For the political junkie, though, these aren't normal times and the most indulgent of enablers, the Internet, winks seductively through the computer.

The body says go back to bed, you knucklehead, except - too late - the brain's already churning.

Logic would dictate that in the six or seven hours since the addict logged off, little would have transpired in the presidential campaigns. But junkies track the interval differently.

See, predawn in Hawaii translates to near midday on the elitist East Coast, morning farther west, enough daylight hours for something to have happened.

An irresistible need to know takes hold. Fingers brush the space bar, bringing the sleeping screen to life with an enticing radiance, promising to fulfill a hunger for information.

Bookmarks present the menu for consumption: Web sites of newspapers, other undeservedly maligned main-

stream news media; U.S. and foreign wire services; pages that collect, summarize and link opinion and analysis; well-networked, reputable blogs; reviews and evaluations of polling data. With no shortage of information, the issue becomes which source to click on first.

  Addicts realize that acquisition of poll numbers and constant monitoring of events have no effect whatsoever on how the election will turn out.

The fascination is watching the narrative of an important period in history unfold in real time. It is intriguing for the amazing twists, invigorating for having candidates who are “;firsts,”; sparkling with the energy of a once-detached public.

Through the anxiety of the next six days, junkies can take comfort in the fact that they are not alone. There are countless others who strip the Internet, trying to get a handle on voter sentiment and whether a majority will choose as they will.

  The intensity and length of the campaign from primaries to present have most people deeply invested in their candidate and in the outcome of the election.

The Bush years have been so terrible that there's a sense of desperation among voters to move on, to get the misery behind them. Adding to their distress is that the current occupant of the White House and his cohorts continue to do damage - escalating conflict in the Middle East by running raids into Syria, changing whole sets of rules to weaken environmental protections, blowing off laws requiring oversight of Homeland Security, poorly and laggardly dealing with the financial bailout and interfering improperly in states' voting procedures.

Early or absentee voting can be somewhat liberating. Far more people than before have already done their civic duty, but marking a ballot before election day releases only a bit of the steam from the pressure-cooker.

  Even next Tuesday, voter-fraud clouds largely seeded by Republican operatives with exaggerated claims, not to mention memories of the hanging-chad, butterfly-ballot-2000 election, will boost tensions. Hordes of lawyers have been recruited, ready for action at polling places.

Junkies will remain on pins and needles, feeding their jones until the votes are counted. Then they can celebrate or lament, sleep late, turn off the laptop and come up for air.