The U.S. Elections - random thoughts...

Is it just me or does the U.S. Presidential election campaign seem like it has been going since the start of the Civil War?! Dear God what a drawn out process... I think if I were a U.S. voter I'd be tempted to vote for the Skipper and Gilligan just as long as they promised it would finish!

............................................................

I've been reading the International Herald Tribune lately which draws articles from the New York Times amongst other papers and some of the journalists have been indulging in quite a lot of self-love about how the whole world is 'transfixed' watching this 'great democratic drama' unfold, etc.,etc. Uhmmm, well, not quite... Everyone elsewhere in the world knows that (a) they got thorougly hoodwinked last time with Dubya and (b) seven years of being beaten around the head with Bush's 'my way or the highway' policies means they're watching this like hawks to see they don't get sold another pig in a poke...One can imagine the world is thinking 'Do we send out the BBQ invitations in November to the new tenants or do we pull down the blinds and pretend no one's home?...

......................................................

Who's gonna win? The political pundits tried to prematurely pick (influence?) the winner of a process that lasts for well over a year before even the end of the primaries in New Hampshire and Iowa. So it was with great delight and much solidarity with the average working Joe (and Mary) that I saw the voters go ahead and pick who they (and not the pundits) wanted! On ya!

......................................................

An Anglo wit once said, '300 million people and that's the best you could come up with?'

Thompson - out. A movie actor and political lightweight who had no idea about policies except what was written down on a script for him.

• Mitt Romney - Just pulled out. Telling Michigan he can bring back thousands of vanished auto jobs was as irresponsible as telling people he'd bring back jobs at shipyards working on Tea Clippers. They're gone and those days are over. Almost as bad was his wanting to relax gas mileage standards. Everyone is talking about the end of easy oil and the energy crisis that will cause; the U.S. is having all sorts of foreign policy and economic difficulties precisely because of foreign oil dependance/over-usage and he wanted to go and worsen that. OMG!

• John McCain - front runner (R). Although his policies are basically Bush-lite, he seems steady, intelligent and prepared to go against the current on issues when necessary. Still too overbearing on F.P. for my tastes by you could at least work with him. But 71 (72 next year)? I think the whole military/POW thing is overdone too. I respect the guy and hey, hats off to ya, but that was half a century ago.

• Mick Huckabee - still pitching. Although you tailor your speech and policy to your audience(s), blue-collar steel workers one day, Wall street types the next, he seems like his policies change according to the data from the advance teams demographic surveys. Not this is 'my' message just fine-tuned for you, but rather this is 'any' message that I've been told you're 65% more likely to want to hear. Hmmm....

• Hillary Clinton - tied front-runner. Almost all the Americans I know had passionate feelings one way or the other about her which was surprising. Anway, she tap-danced a lot about voting for and then against Iraq. Now prevaricates about pulling out of there but only in a 'partial' withdrawal leaving troops for just this task and just that task and so on and so forth. Well heck, add that all up and that's almost as many as are currently there now. So who's coming back? Private Ryan's nephew? Sounds to me like being just a little bit pregnant? Sounds like he's trying to have a bet both ways - saying she had a troop withdrawal but also saying that she's left soldiers there too.

• Barack Obama - tied front runner. Smooth, calm, diplomatic, say he's prepared to work with the world rather than give it orders and demands (Messrs Bush? McCain?). Strong on understanding policy details and the philosophy behind them. Can land the odd jab on the chin when needed, but as one columnist wrote today, 'can he stand up to the attack machine' that will be blasted at him soon? Not sure....

Anyway. Drink lots of coffee 'cause this election thingo will still be going in November.