What the papers say

Journalist Fionola Meredith takes a look at what is making the headlines in Tuesday's morning papers.

It is America's "moment of truth", as the Guardian puts it, but the papers - like the rest of us - are essentially playing a waiting game.

Most papers react to the enforced hiatus by taking a look back over the extraordinary campaign.

It was "the longest and most expensive presidential race in history", as the Independent reminds us.

"At one of the most difficult moments in its modern history", reads the paper's editorial, "the US seems about to reach, not to a grizzled senator or governor, but to a new and dazzling political talent, virtually unknown barely four years ago".

'Astonishing'

"An astonishing ascent - it could only happen in America," the paper adds.

There is a lot of love for Obama in the papers: the Mirror describes him as a true 21st century leader, who will rescue his country's reputation and standing in the world, and he has the Mail's vote too, as "an example to Britain and the world of the true meaning of democracy".

But one of the few dissenting voices comes from the Daily Telegraph's editorial.

Senator John McCain may have fought a rather mean-spirited campaign, it says, but it considers him "by far the sounder candidate - a tax-cutter and a zealot for free trade" - plus points in the Telegraph's book.

McCain and Obama pop up on the front pages of the local papers too, but it is yet more money worry that is the real focus.

"Recession is here" is the Belfast Telegraph's grim headline. It gets worse - the paper claims that it will hit us harder here than anywhere else in the UK.

This all comes from Richard Ramsey, the Ulster Bank's Northern Ireland economist, who tells the paper that our large public sector can no longer be relied upon to to protect against a severe downturn.

Crunch

It is going to hurt more, he says, because of Northern Ireland's higher exposure to the housing market slide and consumer-sensitive sectors such as retail.

Another depressing headline features in the News Letter - house prices are set to fall 40% from their value in August last year. Yes, it is Mr Ramsay again, with more bad news.

There is a totally different focus in the Irish News. It leads with loyalist Jackie McDonald's claim that the husband of President Mary McAleese presented him with a fast-tracked Irish passport, so that he would be able to go to a Rangers game during a major loyalist feud.

The big story in the Dublin papers is the "lying eyes" case.

This is the news that County Clare woman Sharon Collins, accused of using the cyber name "lyingeyes98" to hire a hitman on the internet, has been sentenced to six years in prison, for conspiring to kill her former partner and his two sons.

The Irish Independent says that her former partner, PJ Howard, failed in an extraordinary attempt to prevent the judge jailing her.

He described Ms Collins as "one of the nicest people you could ever know".

Small fry

And finally, heard about the shrimp that is faster than Paula Radcliffe?

He appears in the Daily Telegraph, puffing away on a tiny treadmill. Scientists discovered that the 4in long shrimp could jog at speeds of 66 ft a minute, or 0.75 mph, and could carry on for three hours before needing a rest.

The scientists calculated that if the shrimp was the same size as a human it would move at 12 mph, slightly faster than Ms Radcliffe, who ran at 10.8 mph when she won the New York marathon on Sunday.