Just when some semblance of sanity has been returning to the United States presidential campaign, the Republican Party has resorted to that nasty old trick of moribund politics - sling mud at your opponent.

Obviously shaken by Senator Barack Obama's lead in the public opinion polls, Senator John McCain and his Republican campaign machinery have chosen to launch a verbal onslaught on the person of his Democratic rival, rather than rely on an articulated vision and firm grasp of the issues, to sway American voters.

They clearly have not learnt from that failed belief by losing Democratic presidential hopeful, Senator Hillary Clinton in the primaries earlier this year that hitting below the belt is not working anymore.

We found it rather refreshing that Democratic delegates rejected Mrs Clinton's desperate attempt to gain ground by attacking Senator Obama, instead of his ideas, when she saw that he was about to win the party's nomination.

A similar level of desperation appears to be creeping into the McCain campaign, caused no doubt by the increasing distance between the two candidates, according to the latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking report.

Yesterday's poll results show Obama with a considerable 11 per cent lead - 52% to McCain's 41% - among US voters who were asked their opinion by the respected polling organisation. This is Senator Obama's highest level of support to date, and his largest lead of the campaign, Gallup said.

The day before, voters preferred Senator Obama to Senator McCain by 51% to 42%, meaning that the Democratic hopeful had since gained one percentage point while his Republican rival lost one percentage point based, perhaps, on Mr Obama's better showing in the second presidential debate in Nashville, Tennessee on Tuesday. This compares with a five percentage point lead early last week.

Understandably, Senator McCain cannot be expected to throw in the towel with 26 days to go to the November 4 presidential elections. More to the point, he has to dig deep into his arsenal to reverse the worsening tide, in order to snatch victory from what seems at this stage to be the certain jaws of defeat.

But we hoped that it would have remained a battle of wits, where ideas would prevail and issues would lead the way. After all, small minds discuss people; great minds discuss ideas. And in the economic quagmire in which the US has found itself, it is only smart ideas that will pull them out.

In any event, the McCain campaign's strategy of using associates, real or imagined, of the Chicago senator against him, is flawed in two ways: it does not conclusively say anything bad about Senator Obama; and Senator McCain is not in any position to point the finger, given his own questionable association with the infamous Iran-Contra death squads which embarrassed the Ronald Reagan Republican administration.

The world is following this US election with a level of interest perhaps not seen before. We get the sense that the international community of nations is desirous of seeing America win back its credibility and morality as world leader, something they lost in the Iraq war.

And Senator Barack Obama seems the man the world would choose, if they had a vote, to lead that process.

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