When you actually see Barack Obama, it’s startling how slight he is and how young he looks. I watched him arrive for a meeting in Philadelphia this week, and he had an anxious, fretful little smile, as if it were his first campaign speech. His ears stick out and his clothes hang loose. Most successful American politicians look well-fed on endorsements, campaign contributions and chicken dinners.
Hillary Clinton likens herself to Rocky Balboa, but unlike the film hero, she punches below the belt, writes Simon Hoggart. Plenty of Democrats think she is behaving selfishly by staying in at all. Obama is now the likely winner and John McCain, the Republican, is happily watching the two Democrats kick lumps out of each other.
I’m at the annual conference on world affairs in Boulder, Colorado, which sounds very grand but is basically a piss-up with speeches.