I think with politicians, those with a track record are criticised for the minutae of it. Those without a track record are criticised for being inexperienced. It was my contention when I stuck my bet on that the American people may well wish to move onto a new generation of politicians, and make a clean break with the past. Lets face it, there is not really an awful lot to choose between the two sides on domestic politics when compared to the likely run off in France, where there are genuine alternatives. What I do not like about Anglo Saxon politics is it has become more to do with image than substance. I do not think the average Republican is the red necked monster portrayed by the Democrats nor the average Democrat the Liberal wimp that Republicans play tit for tat about.

This is a high stakes game for these people, and they are not going to give hostages to Fox News or anyone else.

So the question is simple, do Americans want more of the same, or do they want a sea change? For once, I know where my money is.

You

I’m not particularly a Hillary supporter either, but once you get over the hurdle of understanding that only the extreme right wingers can speak their mind in the US with impunity (and still win) I understand that Hillary has to hedge on many subjects (Israel unfortunately being one of them) and that Barak has to hedge on the issue of same gender marriage (even though they both realize fully that they are touting irrational nonsense.

That said, does Barak deserve to win? Does he deserve to put his name in the hat even? I would say “no”. If the business of politics is to “do your time”, have a body of “good works” (depending on your point of view of course) and at least a few years of national awareness under your belt, he is definitely NOT a candidate. I don’t really care which Democrat ultimately wins the nomination – any one of them would be infinitely better than John McCain, Rudy Guliani, Mitt Romney et. al. but I would suggest that Barak take a back seat and await a possible Vice President nomination – and he should understand that even that would be a decision based on many things, but none of them his actual qualifications or experience. If he doesn’t and he eventually wins, then all well and good, but he has NO MORE in the way of qualification to run than any member of the house or senate, but for the fact that he is an attractive, minority male with a solid keynote speech from a few years back.

RIP Mark Warner and Even Bayh – they both should have run. I fear that the democratic primaries will now be between a bunch of long in the tooth no hopers such as my own Senator, Christopher Dood and Joe Biden of Delaware and the luminaries who will end up smacking eachother around in a nasty face off.

I got Barak at 20-1. But it was a while ago. I am astonished the odds have shorted that much. My bank manager is becoming a Democrat.

But the next stages are the test of fire. If he can keep his head, I think he has got the opportunity to play the ‘clean break from the past’ card, somewhat like JFK did. (I was going to say new generation, but it’s a bit of a cliché). Incidentally, his book “The Audacity of Hope” is sitting at number one in the NYT best sellers list.

Declaration of interest. I put £20 on him to be the next president. Although it’s a long shot, it is still possible.

How should he behave as a black person, you know, to keep it real?

His speeches are quite inspiring IMHO, and remind me of Bill Clinton, who by the way, was criticised for being unexperienced before being elected President.

What are Oabam’s strong points? What is he noted for? What ground-breaking initiatives has he spearheaded that would justify his run at the preisdency?

In short, nothing!

The man is drab, dour, mediocre and largely talentless.

He is, however, *black*, and these days that’s good enough.

Sorry, if you took ecstasy you’d be pissing yourself

Others might make a distinction between someone freely admitting to abusing drugs twenty five years ago and someone caught out currently abusing drugs.

He starts arguing with a British Airways air hostess: BA BA-RUKUS
He loses dismaslly: BARACK OH BUMMER
Calls for traditional ways: BARACK TO BASICS
Caught canoodling with a prostiture: BARACK WHORE
Gets humiliated by Jack Straw over policies in middle east: STRAW THAT BARACK THE CAMEL’S BACK
Decides to hip up his image and do a duet with beanie man: SIM SIMAH, WHO GOT THE KEYS TO OBAMA

etc

Maybe in the long run it could be a good excercise in differentiation if he has a name like Obama and a middle one Hussain. After multiple exposures to the two terms some peoples psyches would be able to work it out and then they can say ‘Oh of course Obama is not Osama!!!!’ and then say ‘Oh of course this is not Saddam Hussain therefore there must be more than one person in the world with this name well he hasn’t got a moustache has he!!!’

Would it be better symbollicaly for race relations to have a black president?….it’s worth it to see.