A battle is won - now for the war

At the start of the primary elections for Democrat nominee for presidency, it was said it was there for Hillary Rodham Clinton to lose and in that, she has succeeded. From being "tipped for the top" by almost everyone at the outset, she eventually allowed her opponent, Barack Obama, with his youthful good looks, to be the eventual winner - even if Clinton as yet has not acknowledged it as so. The reasoning behind reluctant acceptance of fact is that she has won the big states and has more of the popular votes than her opponent. It could be argued as pedantry on her part, but it does help her wield a trump card when it comes to Obama choosing a running mate in November.

For some time there has been a chorus claiming the "ideal ticket" would be an Obama-Clinton ticket (or Clinton-Obama ticket, depending on your persuasion) and still the chorus persists. But at the same time there are senior Democrat members who say such a choice by Obama would be a catastrophic decision by him, as there are too many negatives surrounding her (and, by extension, her husband).

Wisely, Obama has decided to leave the choice of selection of a running mate to a specially appointed committee of Democrat sages; it enables him to accept their selection and, if an unpopular choice, lay the blame at the committee's door, or override the choice at the beginning and be seen as "his own man" - something that would be appreciated by many.

Thus far, Obama has done little to endear himself to white-collar workers or many women voters. Change for change's sake is not a mandate in itself. If Obama wants the American public on side, then he must be more accessible to them and say what he stands for.