Hillary Loses Her Voice & Mitt Romney Loses It

Hillary is losing her voice. It's an affliction that affects all candidates in the final straits of an election campaign. Neil Kinnock almost completely lost his voice in the last few days of the 1992 election campaign. Some Labour strategists were rather relieved... It must have been the effect of those "We're ALRIGHT's" at the Sheffield Rally! But of course when a woman loses her voice, some people will no doubt interpret it as a sign that she really is of the weaker sex.

Mitt Romney hasn't lost his voice, but it has become rather shaky. The guy it, like, totally rattled (as an American teenager might say!). He's slaling against McCain all over the place. This morning he is bitterly complaining that McCain is campaigning in his home state of Massachusetts. McCain meanwhile seems to be finding his voice and appearing as a much stronger individual than hitherto.

Polls out this morning show that Hillary and Obama are now neck and neck. The Clinton team reckon they are ahead in the bigger states, or as Clinton adviser Kiki Maclean just put it on CNN: "In the places we care about, We're ahead". Nice. So if you're in Hicksville, Delaware, you've just been told you don't count.

Maria Shriver, wife of Arnold Schwarzenegger, yesterday endorsed Obama at a huge event, organised by Oprah Winfrey in Los Angeles. She made a long, rambling speech looking as if she had been dragged through a hedge backwards. But the symobolism said it all. Her endorsement in California will count for a lot.

So it's all getting quite exciting.