Well we're finally tiptoeing through the Election Season proper of the US 2008 presidential election and it's starting out rather farcically, if you ask me.
Four different winners, none of which were predicted in December and some which weren't even predicted 12 hours before the primary itself!
Well, I have to say as politicians go, I do feel there is a fair range of talent out there, so I can imagine this could be a strong factor in making both GOP and Dem races so open. But most of the Republicans are either unpalatably right-wing or religious (e.g. Huckaby and Romney) or unpleasant buffoons (e.g. McCain, Romney and Giuliani). McCain is bland and too hawkish, although well versed in Washington cross-party dealing, and the others smell of fakeness, power hunger, or plain wrongness (anti-evolution Huckaby).
The Dems have a Robert Kennedy, a schoolteacher with teeth and a little southern man with nice words.
Obviously, all breath should be held until Super Duper Tuesday (only in America!) where the real shakedown will start. Literally no one can confidently call it for either party so it just boils down to who you want to win yourself.
Me, if Obama really is a force powerful enough to even get into the whitehouse, then he will be a good president. Just getting the whitehouse for him will be such a massive achievement that the talent, energy and policies he would have to have put forward will have to have been so good as to mean he would have to perform well. So I think in this sense, the process will find him out, will flush out whether he really has got what it takes. So if he wins the election then I'll be happy because of this rationale.
If he wins the nomination but not the presidency, I will have rather Hillary had won the nomination. I hope this makes sense!
To break it down beyond the nomination, I would like to see Edwards as VP nom, whoever wins. Imagine a black president and woman VP or vice versa, crikey, the US (middle class) wouldn't recognise itself!
On the GOP side, the least worst is unquestionably McCain. Giuliani is incompetent, Romney is sleaze personified, Huckaby is unacceptable, Paul is a libertarian mentalist (no income tax, my arse) and I can't even remember the other fella.
Meanwhile, I'm hungry and have to go. :-)
