Luke Skywalker versus Darth Vader

That's how Gerard Baker describes the European take on Obama versus McCain. I'd say it's more like Annakin Skywalker versus Darth Vader, but that's just me. And I'll take Darth Vader over Annakin Skywalker every time.

Here is Baker's conclusion:

What marks [McCain] out from Mr Obama is not his age or his race or his party, but that he has achieved so much of what Mr Obama merely promises to do - tackle the role of money in politics, work across the political lines and promote an image of the US in the world that is in keeping with the finest traditions of American democracy

The problem is that there's a danger that the presidential contest between Mr Obama and Mr McCain will become not a debate but a silly battle of conflicting icons. You can be sure that, in the eyes of the rest of the world, and much of America, if Mr McCain wins it will be not because of his superior experience or the quality of his ideas, but because America is irredeemably racist.

Instead of being the welcome break with America's recent past that he truly is, he will be painted as a continuation of it. Worse, that that, he will have won by vanquishing Hope and Peace. He will be for ever The Man Who Shot Bambi.