a new kind of politics" but to "transform this country", "change the world", "create a Kingdom right here on earth". Comingled with these doses of up-lift are the familiar coarse pledges to crucial interest groups, such as the Miami Cubans. Obama's speech to them on May 25 was an appalling exercise in right-wing demagoguery.

We can look ahead to months of Obama deflecting McCain's onslaughts on him as a starry-eyed peacenik by insisting that what the beleaguered Empire needs above all is efficiency, ruthless if necessary. "The [US] generals are light-years ahead of the civilians," he reassured the New York Times columnist, David Brooks. "They're trying to get the job done rather than look tough."

Can a black man get elected president in 2008? Hillary Clinton said no. In the last weeks she ran up some impressive totals of white voters agreeing with her, as in West Virginia where Obama scarcely campaigned.

Obama right now has an edge in electoral college votes, though this depends on which faction of number crunchers you believe. By almost every yardstick,

except the wild card of his skin colour, he'll win. It should be inconceivable for a Republican to capture the White House for the third time in a row when gas is headed towards $5 a gallon, food prices are soaring and most Americans reckon things are going to get a lot worse.

Hillary's supporters suggest that as Obama's running mate she would be a huge boost to the ticket. Others say all she might deliver him is Arkansas and maybe help in Florida, but who wants Bill Clinton anywhere near the ticket? Other possible veep choices for Obama range from Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico, supposedly a draw for Hispanics, or Senator Jim Webb of Virginia, a tough Vietnam vet who talks one of the best populist games in America, to the Republican Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a decent fellow, also a Vietnam vet against the war in Iraq, though his anti-abortion stand is anathema to liberal Democratic women.

At least for now, the Clinton dynasty is headed for the retirement home. None too soon, I say, however Obama turns out.