I agree with Walsh that neither camp tossed out the race card this week. But it seems obvious to me that the McCain folks attempted a coded trump with it during the Obama trip -- aided and abetted of course by the MSM.

Late in the trip, as its success was becoming glaringly apparent, Obama was suddenly described as 'arrogant' and 'presumptuous'. Given the context, and the history of coded racism by the GOP going back to Nixon, how is it that 'presumptuous' wasn't immediately translated into what it is: 'Uppity'? I guarantee no racist in America is missing that particular bit of code.

she was not being very original as the British press was there long before her when Tony Blair, former Prime Minister,was dubbed Bambi Blair. When first elected, Blair had a very youthful appearance and was regarded as an extremely personable man with a ready smile and wide eyes. Come to think of it, it might have been Matthew Parris, a parliamentary sketchwriter, witty and not enthralled by Blair, who named him Bambi first. The British public showed a different ingenuity when anti-war protesters carried placards referring to Blair as Tony BLIAR. They were attempting to make a point about his support for the invasion of Iraq but Maureen Dowd's point in calling Obama "Obambi" is unclear and is redolent of teen-talk, nothing else. As a highly-paid columnist she's getting to be boring because, in her two weekly columns for the last six months, he is her sole preoccupation. I read many columnists here and in the UK and I've never found one with such a monotone as Maureen Dowd and am getting perplexed about a woman who refers to "teasing" a presidential candidate on his plane while discussing the German for carrot sticks and some other item of food. I haven't re-read the column, as once was enough, but she said that this is what he learned from Chancellor Angela Merkel (and nothing more apparently). Mocking people's names is childish and can be counter-productive. There's a Senator Jim Webb (I thin) who's written about the Scots-Irish in America and McCain belongs to that clan, on of many that make up the United States.

To read about the American election it would be easy to imagine that the US consisted solely of people of African and European descent; Asians and Hispanics must be really fed up of it. It's not an interesting story any more but tedious and disillusioning for politicians and the public elsewhere who've been suggesting that the United States is the paragon of multi-culturalism and multi-racism which should be looked to as immigration into Europe has increased enormously in the last twenty years. Whoever wins this election, there can no longer be any concealment of the deep antagonisms within American society despite the metaphor of "the melting-pot".

As I've already pointed out on Glenn Greenwald's blog yesterday, Barack Obama drew direct attention to the fact that he did not look like any previous American Presidents, in his Berlin speech. There was no need to state the obvious. The German people would have been lavished with the story of the African goatherd and the girl from Kansas through their media, just as we are here. The empty-headed people, so many of them calling themselves journalists, have been running with this story for months - and I can include RTE (the State's national broadcaster in Ireland. Being a natural-born member of the "awkward brigade" I prefer to try to work things out for myself and not rely completely on the say-so of others. It's a bit early for tendentious stuff but some things need to be said. My breakfast is more important to me right now.

before a fall:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jackson-williams/barack-obama-and-guarding_b_116234.html

Coupling an African American man with two blondes, both famous for public nubility -- what could that possibly have to do with race-in-America?

I recall one Hillary-era effusion in which Walsh managed to used the word 'white' no fewer than 9 times on the first screen of her screed.

"funny, light-touch approach" -- are you kidding? The man is setting this country up for division: "If I'm not elected, it's because America is a racist country." It can't have anything to do with his tissue-thin resume or abject phoniness. That he's playing this card in such a "funny, lighthearted way" is all the more repulsive.

Okay.. so, to my mind the question is not whether or not Obama is (or, more accurately, can at times be) arrogant but whether we, as a country, should hold it against him.

"Arrogance" as a political slant is a featured adjective in this election cycle; but what is a high-ranking politician /but/ arrogant? What makes Obama any more or less arrogant then Bush, Cheney, Pelosi, both Senator and President Clinton, Reagan, Nixon, Steny Hoyer, Larry Craig or the rest of them? The only un-arrogant politicians I can thinkg of are.. none. Carter? Maybe. Kucinich.. he is arrogant in his own way.

Family friend George Voinovich is maybe un-arrogant.

But is what Obama exhibiting arrogance or confidence? Charisma? Charm? Are these leadership qualities we would want in a president? If he's arrogant, is he at least smarter than Bush, and does he not have a better world-view than McCain?

When did being "elite" become a bad thing?

I know that's a lot of questions. I apologize.

Amy Winehouse could have been in there too in order to give it an international flavour. She's dark-haired and, oh yes, she's Jewish. Would that have helped?

The Brits have an expression that applies to Barack's celebrity tour; he "over-egged the pudding". It was much too much for a candidate still awaiting the official endorsement of his own Party. He was badly advised to do it and you might have noticed, Joan, that Carla Bruni stayed well out of the way. Whatever her amorous adventures, commented on harshly by at least one writer on an earlier blog of yours, she is an intelligent multi-lingual woman. Sarkozy knows only very little English but he knows a photo-opportunity when it falls into his lap.