Clarke's end is the latest in a series of failed challenges from 'popular anti-war' candidates. Howard Dean was hailed as the exciting challenger to George W Bush but couldn't even get the nomination of his own party. John Kerry was half-hearted on Iraq but still tried to press the right buttons for the Stoppers and was beaten by a man who for the past four years has been described in the mass media as an imbecilic monkey. In Australia, Mark Latham committed his party to a Troops Out of Iraq position and was beaten by the pro-war PM. Charles Kennedy's position as leader of the Liberal Democrats has been brought into question after the anti-war stance of his party failed to bring the widely predicted electoral breakthrough while the pro-war British Prime Minister won a record third term. In Germany, Gerhard Schroeder's anti-war stance did nothing to stop his electoral defeat to a woman who said she wanted to 'mend fences' with Washington.

Each of those failures has its own story but together they show that the media generated idea of an electorate seething over Iraq and determined to make pro-war politicians pay at the polls was and is a myth.

See Harry's Place