Leaders and Politics Today
Simon Jenkins in yesterday's Guardian:

Cameron's unique selling proposition is quite different, and one that nowadays trumps any track record. He offers plausability lightly dusted with charm. The tools of his trade are not manifestos and "worked-up" policies, but a pleasant face, a winning smile, some eye contact and a cheery repartee. These convey more conviction than a book of promises. They snap the media membrane and get to parts of the body politic that mere words can never reach. Only losers underrate them. Winners let others deal with policy.

Jacques will probably (unhappily) concur that this is the state of play in Democracy version 2005.

From a Maltese point of view, however, what we should be really talking about (and don't tell me that this was yesterday's news) is what part of our national psyche permits a leader to remain at the helm after a string of crushing defeats (on both policy and form, by the way) while the Tory party has just elected its fifth leader inside a decade. The Times of Malta prefers to linger on the fact that he attended Eton (3 times in one editorial) while The Independent loved the bit about his wife's ankle-tattoo. You can just imagine the editor wondering whether it's a heart or a lizard.

ps: thanks to gybexi for the link to the picture  ¶ 2:45 AM