Barack Obama should remove the gloves and start "scrapping and fighting" with Hillary Clinton if he is to have any chance of winning the Democratic nomination, writes Karl Rove in today's Financial Times.

Mr Rove, George W. Bush's electoral maestro, who is credited with obliterating the campaign strategies of opponents Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004, said Mr Obama was acting "too pure and high minded" to wrest the nomination from Mrs Clinton, whom many believe is closely following Mr Rove's ruthless model of how to win elections. "Not that you [Mr Obama] have asked for advice, but here it is anyway," Mr Rove writes. "Sharpen your attacks and make them more precise. In some debates you don't even look at her when disagreeing with her, making it look like you're afraid of her."