Skip to main content

That American presidential contest in full

The US Presidential election is shaping up to be a real humdinger.

I have to say, hand on heart, that I was a Hillary Clinton fan. Not because she's a likeable politician or someone who lights my emotional candle, but because I thought she'd have the guts and balls to really stick it to the Republicans. She'd get down and dirty, which is what you need when you're in a street fight. I like Obama, but that's not necessarily a good thing. I remember once choosing a solicitor because I liked her, but she was pretty crap. I ended up advising her on things that were wrong with a property contract. Perhaps I should have sent her a bill?

My confidence in Obama has been growing steadily as the campaign has progressed. I have my fingers crossed that he won't buckle under the relentless onslaught that's coming in the next couple of months. But having seen the Republican Convention, I admit my anxiety is rising. McCain-Palin must be one of the barmiest tickets ever produced in modern American politics. The introduction of the moose-munching Alaskan Governor is the equivalent of a hand grenade being thrown into the race.

Let's just imagine that the eccentric Vietnam vet and self-styled 'maverick' makes it into the White House on 4th November at the grand old age of 72. Moose features - who seemed such a good idea during the Convention season - will suddenly become a bit of a problem. I expect she won't shut up. And her forthright views on guns, evolution and God knows what else will cause McCain no end of trouble, as she becomes a magnet for every rightwing crackpot across the States. It will make an interesting spectacle and no doubt cause no end of amusement. Until such time as McCain's ticker gives out. And then we're in a whole new ball game.

So, for everyone's sake, Mr Obama, please give it everything you got. The whole nine yards. Because this Londoner is worried that we may soon be looking back fondly on the George W Bush era.

Comments

  1. Have faith, Phil - that hand grenade will blow up sooner rather than later. I think she will prove to be the biggest turn-off once the fascination with her guns, guts, glasses and grandchildren-to-be wears off. Sometime in mid-October.

    It's a choice that has "desperate" written all over it - and undermines his whole attack plan against Obama - the lack of experience.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Fawlty Towers script? Si, senor!

Ok, so I gave ChatGPT the following scenario: "Imagine a theatrical script for a situation comedy set in a hotel in Torquay, England. The proprietor is called Basil, an eccentric man who believes the calibre of guests to be low. His wife, Sybil, is often frustrated by Basil's incompetence. They employ a Spanish waiter called Manuel, who struggles to understand English. Basil suspects that two guests, who claim to be married, may be lying." Here's what our favourite AI came up with: Scene: The hotel lobby in Torquay, England. Basil is standing behind the reception desk, looking at a piece of paper. Sybil is standing next to him, looking annoyed. Manuel is hovering nearby, trying to look busy. Basil: (to Sybil) I don't know why we get such low-calibre guests at this hotel. Look at these two - Mr. and Mrs. Smith. They claim to be married, but I suspect they might be lying. Sybil: (sighing) Basil, it's not our job to judge the marital status of our guests. Just m

It's been a tough year. Let's give ourselves a clap.

If something didn’t smell right about the UK handling of the pandemic, the British public was never going to notice. But they knew that if they couldn’t smell something, they really ought to get a Covid test sent to them in the post. There has been something incredibly British about the DIY swabs and their delivery via the gig-economy workers of Amazon, hasn’t there? Touch of corona? I’ll pop something in the post to you. Should be with you tomorrow. I suppose it was inevitable that we’d need some new kind of system. After all, the coronavirus outbreak was the first thing in the history of the NHS that couldn’t be cured by paracetamol, rest and plenty of fluids. This understandably left GPs flummoxed and anxious. The UK decided pretty early on that if you were ill with a novel pathogen – which proved deadly in maybe 1% of cases – you really shouldn’t go to the doctor. You should STAY AT HOME and spread it quickly to your flatmates or family members. And because they were now at

The race for bogus Olympic stats

Of all the dubious statistics thrown around in relation to the London Olympics, the claim that there are '47 tube journeys in central London that can easily be walked' is surely one of the most misleading. I suspect it is based on the relative proximity of one station to an adjacent one. Embankment is walking distance from Temple. Charing Cross is a stone's throw from Leicester Square. But what exactly is a 'tube journey'? As I've understood it - and I'm only going on three decades' experience of using the network - it is a journey that takes you from any one place with a tube station to another. My journey from Leicester Square might take me to Charing Cross, but it might also lead me up the line to Camden Town or down south to Morden. In fact, from any one tube station - thanks to the wonders of interconnections - there are dozens, maybe hundreds, of options available to me. Now, I don't claim to have a PhD in mathematics, but the number of p