attractive black woman who said earlier this year that she'd been ashamed of America until her husband ran for the presidency.

Meanwhile the New Yorker is creating a stir by running its cover of Obama in ethnic dress bumping fists with Michelle sporting an Afro and a gun, with Osama bin Laden's portrait on the wall behind him and an American flag burning in the grate. Obama says it doesn't bother him, though it's a slur on Muslims. Liberals whine that it fans the flames of prejudice.

The magazine's editor, David Remnick, claims to be stunned and upset that satire has been confused with reality. This is the magazine that has never apologised for running a very influential though entirely fake story before the Iraq war claiming seriously that Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden were in league. Either Remnick is being disingenuous or he's really stupid. Anyone familiar with editing material for the internet knows that satire is always taken as literal truth.

The latest New York Times-CBS

poll shows that whites esteem Obama less than blacks and many of them don't care for Michelle. But the same poll shows that Obama leads McCain among Hispanic voters by 62 to 23 percent and that he's leading McCain overall by six points.

The best thing, almost the only thing, that the Republicans have going for them is the race card, often a reliable item in the American political deck. Thus far, because McCain is playing a very weak game, it has not brought them significant advantage.