Today's Washington Post has a thoughtful piece about the other candidate in the US presidential race. Apparently he strongly identifies with the 'romantic fatalism' of Robert Jordan, the American hero of Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, who fights on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. I remember being impressed with that when I was about fifteen, but on the whole I've long since moved on in terms of taste. Theodore Roosevelt seems to be another big influence. Predictably McCain has a lot of thoughts about US foreign policy (his area of expertise), although the article highlighted such glaring inconsistencies as wishing to expel Russia from the G8 while hoping to secure her cooperation in arms control. What was more worrying was his lack of interest in economics, as reported by an advisor who had tried to explain some of the major problems afflicting the US. His inability to control his emotions was also disturbing, although Bill Clinton apparently had a ferocious temper too. Nor will classic Reaganites be impressed by his faith in the transformative power of big government. So over to camp super cool. The Sunday Telegraph has a witty piece that claims obese and unhealthy Americans feel uncomfortable with the very fit, very lean Obama, who goes to a gym three times a day even during his campaign. Apparently he looked in horror at some of the chow he was presented with in some of the more down home places he visited on the electoral trail. So there you have it as the polls seem to be closing the gap between the two candidates. Meanwhile the Observer throws more light on Miliband's mysterious achievement of getting into Corpus Christi with 3 B's and a D. Apparently attending Holland Park meant that he could claim to be from a deprived background- evidently the dons of Oxford thought Primrose Hill, where David and his Marxist professor father lived in an expensive house, was like the Pepys Estate in Deptford. So that's solved that then. As we Brits go on holiday with our recommended readings, perhaps we should all pack Pareto's Circulation of Elites?