An Outside View Calling It as It Is

Max Hastings is a British writer of military history, no soft tree-hugger. I like the way here that he describes how McCain would be the extension if the dunderheaded ways of the Bushies. The Republican Party is stuck in an incompetent, simple-minded "brutishness" that will lead to nothing but further disaster.

So badly have the Republicans handled this campaign and, indeed, their recent governance of America that they have herded themselves into a corner. In their intolerance and aggressive religious fervour, they have pushed out of their own ranks most voters with minds, or with a shred of liberal social conscience, or who realise that however little they like government and taxes, they need these things, especially in a global financial crisis....

To put it bluntly, the Republicans have become the party of America's stupid people. That is not abusive, but a statement of fact. Most of the whites who will vote for McCain next week are demographically among the nation's least-educated: rednecks; drivers of big, tough pick-up trucks with flags on the hoods; Johnny Cash fans; and deer hunters.

Sure, in upmarket city suburbs there are still some McCain/Palin boards up, among people who simply vote with their wallets. In the Bush years, the Republicans have justified their reputation as the party which looks after rich people.

But a shrewd political reporter said to me: 'The real fault line in America is no longer geographical, between north and south, the middle and the coasts; it's educational.'

Lawyers now back the Democrats by 4 to 1; with doctors, it is 2-1; investment bankers, 2-1; executives in hightech businesses, 5-1.

The blunt, happy truth is that today there are not enough dumb people in the United States to elect John McCain and his hockey mom Veep.

A formidable majority of Americans perceive that George W. Bush's pretty brutish presidency has been a disaster. They are painfully conscious that he has made America more widely disliked in the world than at any time since Vietnam....

The choice before Americans on Tuesday next week is more stark than most of us would have imagined possible a few months ago.

If, by some implausible twist of fate, Americans turn back to McCain, they would vote for more of the same - bungled economics, breaks for the rich, blundering foreign policy, perverted religion and foolish folksy values, a moral arrogance which has led America in to military quagmires abroad.

If instead - and thankfully most likely - they choose Obama, they will take a soaring leap into the unknown. Electing him will be the bravest thing the American people have done for many a long day.

The world is holding its breath, full of fervent hopes that they will not lose their nerve.