Pollster: Character rather than policy will win race

IN AN anxious and angry America crying out for change, it will be the candidate’s character, not their policies, which will win them the leadership of the free world, leading US pollster Frank Luntz said.

A youthful but inexperienced messenger of hope for America is set to take on an old, battle-scarred former prisoner of war for the prize of the White House this November.

If he wins the nomination, Democrat Barack Obama, a 46-year-old Illinois senator often likened to a rock star, will be up against Republican John McCain, a 71-year-old Arizona senator who fought for his country and spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam’s Hanoi Hilton.