Cristina Fernández has devoted so much time to foreign travel during her election campaign that it almost looks as though she is running for a job at the United Nations, not the presidency of Argentina.

The senator, who spent last week courting financiers, business leaders and diplomats on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, is virtually certain to glide to victory on October 28 in a seamless succession to her husband, President Néstor Kirchner.