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Deeply flawed hopefuls

• Justin Webb
• 12 Apr 08, 09:31 PM GMT

So Barack Obama is . For the record this is what he said at that now infamous San Francisco fundraiser:

"The jobs have been gone now for 25 years, and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are going to regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Reasonable points. Points with which no Democrat could disagree. But points a social scientist might make, not a man seeking the presidency.

In the past Obama has bounced back from statements regarded by the media commentators as "gaffes" but this?

It brings me back to the issue we discussed some time ago: that, contrary to popular belief, neither of these candidates, Clinton and Obama, is actually very strong. They are deeply flawed, not as people but as presidential hopefuls.

So is McCain of course: which is why it will remain such an interesting race.

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