Presidential race

The very first articulate, bright, clean Black in the American mainstream chooses his running mate. Joe Biden. Good grief. There's only one course open to the Democratic handlers now. But how do you campaign with your lips sewn shut?

No comment from Faux News as yet on Obama's table manners, which might be surprisingly good.

And thus the American Presidential contest wambles and witters on, and the elephant in the room trumpets. Obama's mad flight to the centre has left only one issue in the foreground, the one that's been there all along, perhaps the only one that matters a damn to too many voters. More than 600,000 websites currently use the n-word in reference to Obama. And the list is growing.