Joe Klein, the legendary American journalist and author of Primary Colors was in town last night to talk about the US election. TimeWarner threw a champagne-soaked gathering with the great and the good at Soho Hotel, and a very lively panel discussion – with Jim Naughtie, Bronwen Maddox and Trevor Phillips – ensued. Unsurprisingly, the consensus was that, with twelve months to go, the presidential race is still wide open. While the Republicans are practising ‘Cinderella’ politics, quipped Klein, squeezing right-wing religious policies into glass slippers, the Democrats are more like ‘Goldilocks’: ‘too much heat’ on John Edwards, the ‘coolest’ candidate he’s ever written about in Barack Obama, and Hillary, of course, somewhere in the middle.
The indomitable Mrs Clinton was perhaps inevitably the focus for much of the debate. She has run a far more impressive campaign than Klein expected, apparently, being unexpectedly ‘courageous’ about sticky issues such as universal health insurance and alternative energy sources.
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