Election 2008: Intelligence is a plus, not a must

A victory each for Clinton and Obama in the Democratic primaries. So the race drags on. Increasingly the reporters must be enjoying what is effectively an extended holiday for them. I mean, as long as you put “Obama in the lead”, “No knockout blow”, “Narrow victory for Clinton” and “still in the race” into your article then you can pretty much send in the same piece, over and over again. Even the participants seem increasingly bored by the contest. The fight seems to have gone from them.

So we have to take comfort in those smaller stories. Those little encounters. Particularly the ones which embarrass those candidates wishing to fight an election campaign against a daft old man in the winter. Take this little moment for Obama, campaigning at a café:

“At the coffee shop, Obama got a bit of a surprise at one table. While talking to a trio of men eating breakfast, one handed him the bill. "This will seal the thing,'' he said. Obama accepted it, and later took it to the cashier and paid it. The only problem for Obama — he picked up the tab for Steve Czajkowski, a pastor at the local Community Church of Greenwood, and a Canadian citizen who can't vote.”

Magic stuff. Obama ends up buying coffee someone who can’t even vote for him. I suppose you could argue that he had no choice but to buy the coffee – after all, he would have looked tight had he asked for proof of their right to vote before putting his hand in his pocket. Still, fair play to the guys who effectively fleeced him. Although they may regret it if he becomes the most powerful man in the world.

Onto Hillary, who has been casually placing her foot in her mouth:

“Clinton fared no better at a morning event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with race car driver Sarah Fisher, one of the top females in the sport. Clinton tried out an analogy, comparing the economy to a race car, saying "if you want to go forward, put it on D - if you want to go backwards, put it in R.'' It was left to Fisher to tell the New York senator that Indy race cars do not have a reverse.”

In fairness, I didn’t know that those sort of cars don’t have a reverse gear either. But then again, I’m not heading up a multi-million dollar campaign that could afford people to do this, very basic, research for me. And when you think about it, it is fricking obvious that these sort cars wouldn’t have a reverse gear. You’d be a piss poor racer if you were driving backwards…

But until the Democrats actually put themselves into gear and work out who they want to contest McCain in the autumn, this sort of anecdotes are the best this campaign can offer. And for one of the two Democratic candidates, these stories will be all they have very soon. Because the time is drawing near when the race will be over for definite, and one of them will have to retire into relative obscurity. Or the US Senate, as it is sometimes called.