I'm not a gambling man, but I'm willing to predict, with a degree of confidence, that John McCain will win the election.

Whatever your politics, he's a good candidate: he understands campaigning and he understands what his electorate want. 

Recently, I read the comment that 'if the American people vote with their heart, they'll choose Obama; if they vote with their gut, they'll choose McCain'. 

Well, these aren't settled times in America (or anywhere else, come to that) and people can be forgiven for voting with their gut. 

Furthermore, McCain is able to offer a clear-cut stance on most issues - witness his recent 'star turn' in front of a gathering of evangelical Christians when he boldly stated that life began 'at the moment of conception'. Obama, by contrast, fudged his response.

McCain and the Republicans will find it easy to hang just about any defamatory hat on Obama that they please....most of them will seem to fit. 

So...if you're a liberal/leftist, stop worrying and try to reconcile yourself to another four years of right wing government in America, with all that that means for foreign policy.  And if you're a conservative, relax: you needn't worry about a thing.

Of course, the Democrats ensured they were going to lose long ago by ensuring that their candidate was going to be drawn from a shortlist of two, highly contentious, candidates.

And there's an elephant in the corner here, too: the fact that many Americans (judging by the ones who confide in me) just don't feel ready for a black President - especially not a tryo one, like Obama. 

Think about it....if Obama was actually elected, his lack of experience might actually set the civil rights cause back, which is surely something no sane person would want.

So...it's McCain, for better or worse. 

See you in November.

He gives clear answers, like the one above.

I find it very alarming and depressing, especially the choice of Sarah Palin.

Well, it's been nice knowing you all, anyhow.

Indeed, IRF, those were my thoughts, too.

I can't claim I'm thrilled about the prospect of another Repubican Chief Executive...but I am looking forward to all the hand-wringing and caterwauling come November when the 'bien pensant' Grauniad readers treat it as yet another backward step for mankind.

What a strange thread this has been!

It starts off with a discussion of McCain's strength as a politician¹, and then it appears to use this as a basis from which to downplay his political stance, which, given the current state of global politics/economics/etc could be nothing short of disastrous.

¹Although, I'm not even sure I'd agree with Swan_Knight's 'clear answers' call: "Ahhh... I think I agree with the President"?. Come on - give me a break...

I read Swan Knight's original message late last night and went to bed in a shroud of depression - not only at the awful implications of what he was suggesting, but by the lack of counter-arguments at that time. Reiner and others have restored my confidence in the good sense of fellow members of this forum this morning, I am pleased to say.

As for the potential Vice President being an asset, I would have thought that Obama's supporters would be cheering at her nomination. Could they really elect as VP (and highly likely future President) someone with those views she holds - and who looks like a mixture of Mrs Merton and the Avon Lady from Edward Scissorhands? Sadly I have never understood what happens to Americans when they enter the polling booth, so I suppose it's possible. And sadly there will be no part of the world to which we will be able to escape, since her influence will be worldwide.

Time to go back to bed and to put my head under the pillow.

(I have not even mentioned the fact that the alternative seems to be the most charismatic politician to emerge in several generations!)

I don't really know what you mean by "accept" there, S_K. Would you expect that everyone for whom people like McCain are the embodiment of everything that is bad in this species should just roll over and mumble something about cookies and crumbling? Both Nixon and Reagan did in fact cause untold suffering and death in the world. If you'd been living in virtually any Central American country in 1980 and you'd viewed the election of Reagan as a disaster of massive proportions you'd have been absolutely right. America and the world survives these things, yes, but if you're on the receiving end of a foreign policy characterised by ruthless greed, you don't survive.

"Charisma", "experience"... these are just meaningless epithets that get bandied around between politicians and their spin doctors. Would Barack Obama stop the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, or call a halt to the incredibly dangerous policy of surrounding Russia with missile bases, or force Israel to stop its ethnic cleansing/apartheid policy towards Palestinians? No, he wouldn't do any of those things. In that sense he isn't the candidate of the "left" or of "liberals". There has never been such a candidate in the USA who stands a credible chance of winning. Would his election give some scrap of confidence to the black population of the USA and elsewhere? Probably (though I dare say it won't improve their relative economic standing or unfortunate tendency to find themselves in jail far more frequently than if their skin had been white).