John McCain leads the first pets race

And the winner of the animal lovers’ vote is . . . John McCain. The Arizona senator beats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton hands down when it comes to the number of potential first pets.

McCain possesses a menagerie. He has four dogs, including Lucy and Desi, named after the black-and-white television sitcom I Love Lucy, which rather dates the 71-year-old candidate. He also has a cat, a parakeet and a shoal of fish, including one called Lucky, and once owned a ferret and an iguana named Henry, who turned out to be Henrietta and laid an egg.

The Obamas do not own a pet, though they have two photogenic daughters, Malia, 9, and Sasha, 6, who have been promised a puppy should they move into the White House. They have some way to go to catch up with John F Kennedy, with whom Obama is often compared. He kept a pony, dogs, a cat, a canary, a rabbit, hamsters and two parakeets for his children.

A dog is an essential tool of government. There is nothing like a furry friend to feature in a distracting publicity photo during a domestic or international crisis and to provide private consolation when times are hard.

President Bush once said about Iraq: “I will not withdraw even if Laura and Barney [his scottie] are the only ones supporting me.” With McCain vowing to keep American troops in Iraq for 100 years if necessary, it is perhaps as well that he has a number of pets.

Socks the cat was a star of the Clinton years, but should Hillary’s fortunes revive she is unlike to take back the elderly family pet that she dumped on her husband’s White House secretary when his presidency ended. There is still Seamus, a chocolate labrador who replaced Buddy, the second dog owned by the Clintons to be run over.

Mike Huckabee has three dogs, Jet, a black labrador, Toby, a King Charles cavalier spaniel, and Sonic, a shih tzu, but his son, David, was accused with a friend of torturing and hanging a dog at a Boy Scout camp in 1998. Animal rights groups in Arkansas, where his father was governor, were outraged and the 17-year-old was dismissed as camp counsellor.

Lyndon B Johnson had beagles named Him and Her. He got into trouble for affectionately lifting Him by the ears. Checkers, Richard Nixon’s cocker spaniel, was investigated as an improper gift in the 1950s.

Nixon’s “Checkers speech” gave a full account of his finances and helped to clear the way for Tricky Dicky to run for president.