Bill Clinton back in the White House? Thank the Lord for John McCain
THE Democrats in the United States are in deep trouble. No clear winner emerged from Super Tuesday, leaving Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to slug it out to a bitter conclusion in Denver in August at the party's nominating convention.
It's the Democrats' worst nightmare. A locked convention would leave them utterly divided, and give the Republicans a clear lead. Indeed John McCain looks to have the Republican nomination just about sewn up. If he's the politician I think he is, then McCain will choose Mike Huckabee as his running mate, to look after the deep south and the Bible belt.
As I had to be in London early this morning, I was up and channel hopping between CNN, CNBC and Fox News around 5am. All were showing Barack Obama's incredibly turgid rant which seemed to go on and on. He's normally a such an exciting speaker but if this "onwards and upwards" speech was a taste of the campaign to come in the next few months, he'll send most Americans to sleep.
I've nothing agauinst Hillary Clinton, but there's no way that I want to see her disgraced husband once again walking the corridors of the White House and getting up who knows what sort of mischief. The lie of "I did not have sex with that woman" should be enough for the Democrats to say "thank you but no thanks" to the Clintons and opt for Obama.
It seemed inconceivable this time last year that the Republicans could win the White House after eight years of Bush and Iraq. But McCain, the former prisoner of war of the Vietnamese who was tortured while in captivity, has begun to assert himself. He looks presidential and is my type of Republican - socially liberal and left wing Conservative.
He's got my endorsement. I was present for his speech to the 2006 Tory Party conference - it didn't set the hall on fire, but it was solid and statesmanlike.
Do I,matter? Well, there's the small matter of 20,000 US voters working in the EADT circulation area at USAF bases Mildenhall and Lakenheath and so I might just have a small part to play.