Interesting piece in he local paper by Johann Hari about Obama's and McCain's relationship with their fathers:
The Hillary-dam has finally burst, so now oceans of newsprint are being spilled over the long-delayed Republican vs. Democrat showdown. But as we simplistically blather about the candidates' race and age we seem to be ignoring the best guide we have to John McCain and Barack Obama's hearts.
Both men have written strange, searching books about their fathers. It is in their pages that we can find the clearest clues to their potential presidencies. At first glance, these slabs of non-fiction -- "Dreams From My Father" by Obama and "Faith of My Fathers" by McCain -- are strikingly similar. They both tell the autobiographical story of an insecure young man who flails around for an identity, and finds it by chasing the ghost of his absent father to a dangerous place far beyond the United States. Yet Obama ended up writing a complex story of colonized people -- while McCain wrote a simple celebration of the colonizer. (jh/t MP) Read more.