COLUMBUS, Ohio - For once the hottest tickets here in these parts are not for the Buckeyes, the all-conquering Ohio State University college football team.

They belong to a temporary performer at OSU - Jon Stewart, cult-figure host of the Daily Show, the smash satirical spoof on the Comedy Channel which often seems far closer to the national political pulse than its equivalents in the conventional media.

All this week, as America's ferocious mid-term election campaign moves towards its climax next Wednesday, Stewart has been hosting his show from the OSU campus. "We're going to Ohio because it was the prettiest girl at the ball in the 2004 election. The debutante that everyone wanted to seduce and we would like to see if the boy ever called again," he said. "We're going out there to find out what happened to this swing state ... and to the people who were massaged by Democrats and Republicans alike."

If possible, Ohio, which has long enjoyed a quasi-mythical status as America's supreme political bellwether, is even more the crucible of the contest this time around.

It was the state that finally handed the White House to George W. Bush in 2004. But long before that, Ohio was famous for voting with the winner in almost every Presidential election - Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944 and John F. Kennedy have been the only exceptions in the last century.

It is partly rural, partly rust belt industrial, part rich agricultural, and part high-tech - a microcosm of America, right down to its propensity for fast food.

But Ohio has also largely missed out on the last five years of recovery. Unemployment runs above the national average. In 2004, lost jobs, outsourcing and high corporate profits and top executive pay were issues that almost carried John Kerry to victory.

These elections are a heaven-sent opportunity after a series of eye-popping scandals at state level, abuses that have grown out of years of unchallenged Republican rule.

As Herb Asher, political scientist at OSU, tartly noted, "It's hard to blame the Democrats for anything here, because there are no Democrats in power here.

"Everything is still going the Democrats' way.

"They're running away with the governorship, and could gain other top state Government offices. They'll almost certainly win Mike DeWine's Senate seat, and could pick up a couple, maybe three, Congressional seats."

This time it will be harder than usual for Republicans. Their problems start at the top, in the statehouse in Columbus. Bob Taft, the outgoing Governor, is scion of one of Ohio's greatest political dynasties, a family that produced William Howard Taft, the 27th President, senators, ambassadors and jurists.