Nine or ten months ago no one figured that the campaigning Democrats would now be largely silent on Iraq, or that the Republicans would be squabbling over which candidate had been most zealous for putting more troops more quickly into the supposed quagmire. Administration officials were then complaining about too much focus on bad news in Iraq, not enough credit for the good news about the economy-likewise now vice versa.

Hillary was looking forward to coronation, while senior, ‘above the fray’ statesman and first black president Bill was preparing to cement his divine humanitarian work by official White House sanction. Obama’s energy and idealism were felt to be a tsk, tsk “positive” for the party, as his envisioned milk-run-in theory could one day provide practical experience for a welcomed serious bid after the 16th Clinton year in office.

McCain, in the words of the Daily Telegraph, was a “Dead Man Walking”, as its columnists speculated about his failure (“So who will benefit from McCain’s demise? “). A relaxed Giuliani was most worried about Hillary, as pundits speculated on the nasty slugfest to come between the two New York lawyers. Thompson was still our Arthur Branch. Edwards was just discovering yet another new angle with his “Every Man a King” Huey-Long persona. Romney then, was mostly Romney now. And Huckabee? Most of us knew one, but it wasn’t Mike.