Brown wants Clinton,Osama wants McCain

James Forsyth over at Coffee house suggests that Gordon Brown should be taking a close look at the Democratic Primary race

a defeat for Hillary Clinton, would be bad news for him. First, it would remove any chance of Brown getting some easy opportunities to play

statesman.and

Second, the British political class are obsessed with the US elections and in most people’s minds Hillary Clinton is the Gordon Brown candidate. The failure of her campaign would lead to a slew of articles about how Gordon shares Hillary’s shortcomings

The British Prime Minister has, by tradition and protocol,kept out of the political battle,but prudence dictates that it is not a bad idea to court the favorite candidates through diplomatic channels.The climate has changed dramatically in the last few months.Brown will have assummed that a Clinton,Guilani contest would have taken place less than a couple of months ago.

Perhaps rather more worrying for the world is this report from the BBC's American correspondent Justin Webb who suggests that Al Qaeda may be gunning for Republican candidate John McCain.

He writes that

Islamic terrorists want war.They want suffering amongst others an amongst their own people alike and will surely surmise that McCain will give them what they want

.