Stock, oil and related futures provide valuable clues for investors/readers concerning where these market / commodities are headed.

With the above as background, Intrade.com's futures for the 2008 U.S. presidential election currently predict a decisive victory for U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, over U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona.

InTrade's Realtime Electoral Vote Predictor is projecting an electoral college vote total of: Obama 364, McCain, 174. A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.

Futures for Obama win are high

Futures on an Obama win are at 86.4. The 86.4 level means that the market predicts there is an 86.4% chance of this event happening. All Intrade markets trade between 0 and 100.

Futures on a McCain win are at 14.4, signaling that the market believes there's a 14.4% of McCain winning the election.

While the race for Democratic nomination for president seems to be 67% wrapped up with Hillary Clinton getting the nomination, the Republican nomination is far from settled. According to Intrade.com, a betting site where you can bet on the outcome of the elections, Mike Huckabee has been gaining a lot of ground recently.

As a stock analyst, I can recognize a healthy, up-trending chart, and support for Huckabee has taken off in the last two months, from a 3% chance of the Republican nomination to a 12% chance of the nomination.

According to the Wall Street Journal [subscription], the Democrats are strongly leading the Republicans in the campaign finance race. Currently, the Democratic party has a $100 million advantage. Obama, for example, has more contributors than the top three Republic candidates. This suggests that Americans are tired of Republican policies, the war in Iraq, and so on. In fact, Bush's policies seem to be helping the Democratic party on a financial basis.

But this isn't a political blog -- this is a money blog. If you are interested in trying to make money on this election you should check out Intrade.com, an exchange for political and current event-based wagers. Currently, the Democrats winning the presidency is a $56 contract. This means that if the Democrats win the election, "Intraders" stand to make $44 ($100 - $56). As you can see from the chart on the right, traders have been increasing their bets on the Democrats since the beginning of this year. It's worth noting that Intrade has an extraordinary record of making accurate predictions in both Senate and Presidential races -- talk about an efficient market!

All in all, in recent years people interested in politics have gained the ability to legally try and monetize their passions. Hey! They can use the proceeds to support their favorite candidates or causes.