It has been a mere 97 days since this writerÂ’s last prediction on American politics (that the Republicans would not lose control of the Senate) proved so badly wrong that he was obliged to honour his pledge to eat his words with a dash of Tabasco sauce. This was not without compensations. For one, I received a sympathetic letter from Paul C. P. McIlhenny, president of the company that makes Tabasco, along with a bottle of it large enough to last a lifetime. Next, the inept Democrats have already been so incompetent and incoherent since securing their majorities on Capitol Hill that they must secretly be wishing that they had lost.
More personal humiliation is invited. On Saturday Senator Barack Obama entered the battle for the White House. He did so to the backdrop of a media swoon. He trumpeted the themes of his recent volume, The Audacity of Hope. That his candidature is essentially audacious and relies an awful lot on hope was ignored by most of those who reported it. Someone has to point out that this balloon has hype not helium inside it. I will do so.