I worked in the cable TV industry for a while. When I attended one of the big Cable TV conferences in Chicago a few years ago, I had my photo taken with Evander Holyfield (the boxer who's ear Mike Tyson bit).

Evander seemed rather haughty and arrogant, not acknowledging me in any way. But the photo was the real surprise.

I later showed it to my brother in law, who, assuming that I was standing next to an Evander waxworks model, said it I was I who looked like a manikin and Evander Holyfield who looked real. The reason was that my white palid skin made me look corpse-like compared to the rich brown skin of the boxer.

If you anything about photography you will realize is that the camera man had, not unreasonably, set up his equipment to make sure that Holyfied looked great and the white guy looked pale and sickly.

Could it be that the reason that throughout the presidential debates John McCain looked so pale, pallid and old was that the media had set things up to make Obama look wonderful and further detract voters from McCain - even if at a subconscious level?