The ThunderDragon

Apparently Little Britain USA is too “crude” for American audiences.

Variety magazine complained that the show’s wit “seldom rises above what’s scrawled on a school bathroom wall”. (BBC)

Yes, they’re serious [stop laughing at the back].

Little Britain is hardly a purveyor of the most highbrow humour, true, it’s no Blackadder or Yes, Minister with their verbal sophisatication - but for an American to term it “crude” is just hilarious.

That’s like a German complaining about the quallity of our food, or the French complaining that we don’t pay our fair share towards the EU.

John McCain has announced that he is putting his campaign for the presidency “on hold” due to the the economic crisis, and wants to postpone an election debate with Barack Obama.

This a transparent stunt by a man who has no answer to the economic crisis and wants to leech off his opponent. Because McCain’s ratings have slumped since the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

There is little more than a month between now and election day. This is not the time to be pulling stunts of putting a campaign on hold. McCain should be putting foward his way to fix the economy, not playing electoral games and trying to promote bi-partisan ways forward in the midst of a very partisan election battle.

McCain might claim to have put his campaign on hold, but he hasn’t. He has done the very opposite, and has tried to paint Obama into a corner - either follow his “bi-partisan” lead or be “the nasty man who played politics in a time of economc crisis”.

It’s a political stunt that, with any luck, the American public will see through. I couldn’t possibly ever vote for McCain and Palin, and hope that more than half of the American agree with me on November 4.

… even if I had one, of course.

Being a Conservative, one would expect to be able to support the Republican Party in the US, considering that they are the right-wing party of America. But I simply can’t.

By picking Palin, McCain has ridiculed his own main - and most effective - means of attack on Obama, that he is young inexperienced. True, Palin has some “executive” experience that Obama and Biden don’t, but as a mayor of a town of 8,000 and a couple of years as Governor of America’s smallest state doesn’t amount to much. And Palin is younger than Obama.

On a side note, it is amusing that both slates have the same age/experience contrast - something we don’t really see over here in the same exaggerated way.

But let’s get down to the point: Republicans are not Conservatives. They have some rather weird policy views, and are far too Bible bashing. To me, the policies of the Democrats mesh far more readily with those of the modern Conservative Party - or at least my perceptions thereof.

Their economic policies appear to me to be really rather similar - with a different emphasis and process, but bascially the same idea. And so here’s where the crunch point comes, with both McCain and Palin being:

• anti-abortion
• anti-gay marriage
• pro-guns

I simply cannot support someone with such views. Maybe if the economic differences weren’t so minimal, I could hold my nose and do so.

When it comes to Palin, I agree with Norfolk Blogger: Why are some Tories so politically blinded by her? Yes, she’s pretty, dynamic, female, and quite a good antidote to Obama - but she holds some horrible views.

As such, if I had a vote in the US elections on November 4th, I would vote for Obama and Biden. They have their own faults - being relatively policy-light being one of them* - but them I can stand as “leaders of the free world”. They’re definitely the lesser of two evils.

* Possibly slightly hypocritical coming from a Conservative… but we’re not 57 days away from an election.

Firstly, the news that Labour have slumped to what is claimed to be their lowest level of support since polling began - with them on 23, the Lib Dems only just behind them on 18, and the Conservatives leading on 47 [a lead of 24 points - which is larger than Labour's entire current support!].

Especially bad is that Gordon Brown’s net approval rating is the worst ever for a Prime Minister at minus 60. Even John Major only hit minus 59!

It’s a nice repeat of this poll result, although by the same pollster (YouGov) for a different newspaper. It must seem like a very long time ago to Labour supporters that “Labour jump to within three points of Tories” was a newspaper headline - yet it was only two months.

The vultures just started circling that significant amount lower, methinks.

***

The other good poll is relating to the race to America’s next president. Barack Obama - who expects to clinch the Democratic nomination next week - received 52% in a poll, with John McCain languishing way behind on just 15%.

It’s just that this poll was conducted across five European countries: Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia. And unfortunately, we don’t get an actual vote!

If you also read ‘Bites, you’ll know that my highly paid job [sic - today I got a fiver personal expenses, the CMO bought breakfast and the Deputy CMO bought an icecream] has been keeping me extremely busy lately. So much so, I’ve not been keeping up to date with the news, and haven’t really got any topics to make this week’s guest post on. Not that I actually have the time either to make a detailed post.

In the interim therefore, by way of something completely different, here’s how to solve the tensions in the American Democratic party in the fairest way possible:

Street Fight Obama and Hillary fight it out in hand-to-hand combat.

Play this free game now!!

Something more closely resembling a normal post should return next week!

~ Asp

Hillary says that she won’t be “bullied out” of the race for the White House, saying that the “big boys” - such as Senators Chris Dodd and Pat Leahy and Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico, who are all key Obama allies - are trying to push her out of the Democratic race because she is a woman. But when asked whether Barak Obama could beat John McCain in the presidential election, she said:

So… she thinks that women would - or should - vote for her because she is a woman too? Rather patronising, really. Women, just like men, vote for someone because they like their policies. They’re not going to vote for anyone just because they have a pair of tits and lack a penis, like they do.

Just think if a man was to say that, replacing the word “women” with “men”. Or even if Obama was to say the same phrase just using the word “black” instead. There would immediately be an outcry against it. And the same should apply to Hillary Clinton over this.

I admire the way that Barack Obama has not playing the “I’m black, so vote for me” line. He has made it quite clear that he is about representing everyone who shares his views, not just his race or gender - but everyone.

With this phrase - and her continuous “mis-speaking” - Hillary Clinton has shown herself not fit to be a Presidential candidate.

Exactly what it says on the tin.

LOLbama.

If you don’t get it, you’re way behind the times.

… Pokemon style.

It’s Super Tuesday in America. The day when 22 states are voting in their primaries to select their candidates for the Presidency. It really is a crazy system they have.

It is down to Barack Obama v Hillary Clinton for the Democrats and John McCain v Mitt Romney for the Republicans. McCain is expected to emerge triumphant from the Republican race today, but no outright winner is expected to emerge for the Democrats.

If I had a vote, it would got to Obama. He is the future of America.

UPDATE: What if the whole world have a vote? [Hat-tip to Norfolk Blogger]