Pick of the papers

If you want to partake in something more satisfying than staring at pictures of the early rounds of the Olympics tiddlywinks, then you could browse through any of multiple Barack Obama articles in today’s papers

This column in the Sunday Times provides an overview of where the campaign is at currently, although it plays essentially the same tune as this week’s Lexington in the Economist

You can see the major attack ads via this link

Andrew Sullivan argues in his column that the reason why Obama is not further ahead in the polls is due to a combination of the situation getting better in Iraq, and concerns that a vote for Obama will lead to a unified government (remember, there is a theory that Americans prefer divided government).

Michael Crowley, the editor of the New Republic, argues that if Obama doesn’t want to lose the election to John McCain he has to go negative:

But the best article I have come across this weekend focuses on the rise of a new breed of black politician, one which is characterised as having moved on from the civil rights struggles of the past. There is an interesting debate to be had here relating to the issue of whether politicians in the Obama mould may not seek to address the needs of the black community.