Skipper

Well, my last post somehow seemed to summon up that 'comeback', the amazing news of which awakened me this morning on the Today programme. The polls in The Times yesterday gave Obama a 10-12% lead but, not for the first time the pollsters were confounded as Clinton delivered a win 39% to 37%. This was especially crushing for the Senator for Illinois as his team had predicted a major success well before the vote was over; all the news broadcasts last night on BBC, Channel 4 and the like predicted the same. James Naughtie suggested it was this pre-emption of his victory which prompted a backlash- I suspect her machine was just super competent at getting the vote out: middle aged women and senior voters, the bedrock support of the party.

As I've indicated, I'm keener on Hillary's competence than Obama's undoubted charisma. The article by David Aaonovitch yesterday reinforced my suspicion that the younger candidate has not thought through his positions with any real care. His bandwagon has suffered a major jolt but the contest is now fully open once again. My money would now narrowly favour Clinton's professionalism and resources over Obama's flair and devoted following. But future primaries leading up to North Carolina and then 'Super Tuesday' in February, will effectively decide the nomination.

Meanwhile McCain has come through to beat Romney as the polls predicted, making it even odder that they called the Democrats wrongly. Guliani, who did not campaign openly mustered a derisory vote and one has to question whether his strategy of keeping his powder dry until a later stage is correct. He has missed an awful lot of media exposure and allowed the ex Vietnam soldier- himself written off some weeks ago- to build up formidable momentum. My 'dream ticket for November would be Hillary for president with Obama for vice president. I reckon that would overwhelm anyone the republicans might manage to put up- even that masterful senior citizen, John McCain.