You have to hand it to the Democrats. Not only has Barack Obama out-orated his Republican rival, but his party’s campaign excels in terms of shear inventiveness. They have even harnessed science to the cause.

In this week’s Lancet there is a letter from Cambridge, Massachusetts-based John Alam concerning the Republican candidate’s past and likely future state of health. Specifically, the physician and registered Democrat discusses John McCain’s battle with skin cancer eight years ago.

Alam uses an “evidence-based analysis of the available information to calculate the mortality risk to McCain due to melanoma”, and concludes that the probability of the septuagenarian senator snuffing it – and hockey mom Sarah Palin thus becoming leader of the free world should the Republicans win the election – is 12 percent per year for the foreseeable future.

Scary stuff. But note that relatively little attention has been devoted by political commentators to the fact that Obama is a habitual tobacco smoker.