The following are excerpts from newspapers from around the world, which may be of interest to Royal Gazette readers.

The Knoxville (Tenn.) News-Sentinel, on Democratic presidential race

Gov. Phil Bredesen is offering the Democratic Party a potential tiebreaker for the tight contest between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the presidential nomination. The proposal to hold a convention of superdelegates in June bears consideration and discussion, certainly not a premature dismissal. ...

Bredesen's suggestion is to schedule a superdelegate primary in early June after the final state primaries. Bredesen is not proposing a mini-convention but a two-day business meeting with rules determined by the Democratic National Committee. Candidates would have a final opportunity to make their case to the superdelegates, then one transparent vote will be taken. ...

In a practical sense, it might be good politics for the Democrats. In Detroit last week, Clinton told a union gathering, "If the Democrats send a message that we don't care about your votes, I'm sure that John McCain and the Republicans will be happy to have them."

Meanwhile, with remaining primaries the central focus, it is a good time to begin discussion of Bredesen's plan for a superdelegate gathering. Party leaders who don't want a long, hot summer should put it high on the priority list.

The (London) Observer,

on Obama's speech on race

It is a brave man who, in seeking to be elected US president, starts a speech with the idea that the nation was founded on the 'original sin' of slavery. But that is what Barack Obama did last week.

It would have looked braver had Senator Obama not been forced into addressing the issue by a controversy over statements made by Jeremiah Wright, his church pastor and friend. Rev Wright lambasted the US for ideological hypocrisy in terms deeply offensive to most Americans.

The fact that Obama's speech was a reaction to controversy meant that US media focused more on its effectiveness as damage-limitation than on the ideas it contained. ...

The analysis rings horribly true of Britain too. Although public discourse conforms to liberal anti-racist orthodoxy, skin colour, sadly, still matters. ... If they are not tackled overtly, it is because politicians daren't touch the subject for fear of stoking just the same resentments that Obama described and because none of our political leaders can draw upon the experience that Obama brings to the subject. Westminster, as much as Washington, is largely a club for white men.

It would be a tragedy if Barack Obama's speech, 'A More Perfect Union,' were remembered only as a tactical bid to smother a controversy in an election campaign. It was the most incisive account of race politics in America — and beyond — for a generation. Delivered with dignity, authority and humility, it deserves a place in history as one of the most impressive pleas for a new beginning on race relations since the famous orations of Martin Luther King.