"La Citation"

The print edition of Le Monde has started a habit on its American election pages of writing sound bites in huge letters (as large as some headlines) belonging to people involved, closely or less closely, in the campaign.

Unless I missed any, the one-liners so far belong to: John Kerry; Jimmy Carter; Hans Blix; and Ralph Nader.

Huh? No, of course, the independent newspaper's coverage is objective. Why do you ask?…

(A daily American voter's box by Patrick Artinian seems to have been started in the past couple of days, each including a quote from one individual voter next to his or her photo; the first is from a Ralph Nader supporter in San Antonio; needless to say, the second choice of Jesus Sifuentes, he says, is John Kerry. The second and third filler-type articles are also from Texas (maybe the new column is supposed to concern only voters from Dubya's home state); "I would never have imagined that [our former governor] would have become such a bad president", quips Beverly Spicer of Austin, who, needless to say, adds that "of course", she will vote for Kerry. Also hailing from Austin is Southside Tattoo owner Bart Willis who is voting for — guess who — a fellow by the name of John Forbes Kerry.)