Will Hillary Beat Obama By a Finger?

There's a priceless moment in The Sunshine Boys, the Neil Simon classic about a pair of irascible old comedians, when George Burns starts pointing, jabbing his finger at Walter Matthau. The latter takes it as a gesture of aggression and fires back, eventually reaching for a kitchen knife, "If you're starting with the finger, say goodbye to the finger!"

The Democratic party faithful may soon have a similar reaction, so often are they having a finger wagged in their collective face. For the finger point has become a key part of the body language of the 2008 campaign. And the differences in its use are revealing.

Prime wielder of the aggressive finger is Bill Clinton. The clash between his wife Hillary and Barack Obama grew most bitter when the ex-president launched into a red-faced, finger-wagging rant over what he called Obama's shifting, "fairytale" position on the Iraq war. Finally, perhaps regretting his aggressive gesture, he lowered his hand, er, pointedly - as if sheathing a weapon.

The sight of Clinton's long index finger making repeated stabs stirred an uncomfortable memory. Its most famous outing was in his "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" speech during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, when every other word was emphasized with a flash of crooked index finger.

So it was perhaps inevitable that finger-pointing would become part of his wife's campaign, though her chief influence seems to be an earlier president. Hillary points most frequently before and after a speech, not during, usually to single out a member of the audience for a special, eyes-wide-open smile. It's a gesture that seems folksy and familiar - "Hello, you!" - and surely owes a debt to Ronald Reagan. He would also appear to recognize individual members of vast crowds, giving them an avuncular wink. Skeptics used to insist there was no one there and it was all Hollywood artifice. But it worked.

As for Obama, he only rarely points, usually upward, as if to say "Hush now" or "Hold on". His preferred move is to let index finger and thumb close together, as if grasping a pair of tweezers. It's a scholarly, cerebral gesture, rather than an aggressive one. If he is to beat the Clintons, he might need to pull his finger out.