From a distance

Barack Obama's outrageous remark about Pennsylvania was essentially that the powers that be use religion to distract the working class from a true understanding of their economic plight. Andrew Sullivan, a Barack Obama supporter, says that Bill Clinton used race to distract the working class from their true economic plight --

The shrewd and subtle invocation of racial tropes against Obama is also something that these Arkansan operators know well. One recalls that Bill Clinton interrupted his primary campaign in 1992 to return to Arkansas to preside over the execution of a mentally retarded black man. He was a master at bonding with African-Ameri-cans while signalling to white voters that he was also a Bubba underneath. This time, after telling North Carolina voters last week that a black candidate doesn’t care about “people like you”, he has allowed Bubba to become the public face. His wife’s emergence in Pennsylvania as a tribune of the white working classes is part of the Clintons’, er, flexibility.

No wonder Sully likes Obama so much. Also on the Sunday Times commentary pages, Simon Jenkins, sitting in London and yet writing a more perceptive column about the US election, observes --

They give the old Democratic party an echo of the tough old days, of men who play mean and hard. There is a touch of Margaret Thatcher to Clinton at present.

One could speculate that that is what bothers Sully the most. He luvvs Maggie. It hurts to see liberal-leaning policies attached to a somewhat similar personality.