Candidates Play the Name Game

With “little substantive to separate them,” Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton nevertheless present radically different choices, argues US-based Guardian columnist Gary Younge. He contrasts Obama's fresh blood against "the sclerosis in America's political class," heaping scorn on President Bush’s “cronyism, sleaze, dysfunction and incompetence”—and arguing that Clinton is part of the problem.

Younge hails Obama for representing "a rupture in a three-decade cycle of political leadership" and answers Clinton's contention that "you have to make the case for yourself" with a stinging question: "Really? So who is that bruiser with the generous Rolodex and secret service protection, race-baiting his way around the campaign trail making her case on her behalf?" (More Barack Obama stories.)