So here we go. American election time and it's looking like it's gonna be absolutely brilliant. (Though maybe not for Sarah Palin's poor poor daughter who's about to get her life taken to pieces one way or another for the sake of her mother, in front of 250-300 million americans and everyone else paying attention. For doing nothing wrong i might add.). The Republicans have announced their first ever female nominee for Vice President. Welcome to the stage 44 year old Sarah Palin. 2 year governor of Alaska. Until 2002 Mayor of a town with population 8,000. Mother of 5. Pro Life (meaning anti abortion) including rape victims, incest victims and even when the mothers life is in danger. Lifetime member of the NRA. Wife of an Evangelical Christian. Favourite hobbies are Hunting and Fishing. Anti Corruption Investigator and reformer. Which makes her an incredibly smart choice by the Republicans. John McCain is old and moderate and they know it. They're running against Barack Obama who looks to be a bright, charasmatic and strong leader with an experienced running mate (Joe Biden) to back him up. Oh and apparently he's black or something. They needed to rock the boat even further than it's already rocking, whilst retaining their Christian right base and that's what they've done. The female vote (traditionally the Democratic saviour) now goes up for grabs. And they've added some youth and the afore mentioned charisma to the ticket. To be fair i am jumping to conclusions on account of disagreeing with her on just about every front, and she may be one of the great reasonable leaders of our time, and i hope she is given Mccain's age, but those beliefs are a scary prospect. I have to confess to hypocrisy even as i'm assuming the worst of her inexperience and beliefs, but found myself tutting and damning the Democrats as patronising arses when they were questioning her ability to play on the big stage. She is an unknown entity (apparently even to John McCain and the FBI vetting process) but it has thrown the whole thing wide open. It's gonna be a very interesting, entertaining 3 months or so. Again except for the poor 17 year old girl, and anyone else drawn into the onslaught.
I love American politics. It's so much more of a circus than ours. Partly due to their sphere of influence around the world (here most of all) and partly due to the frankly ludicrous amounts of money they toss around. It's easy to define people as the black hats and the white hats, then cheer, boo and hiss like it's a pantomime, because at the end of the day it's over there. We have Civil Partnerships, total freedom of choice about abortion, no (well very few) guns (why bother when knives seem to work fine), total separation of church and state (as on the majority we're non-believing cynical sods), free healthcare and at least a semi decent education for all, and one of the least corrupt political systems in the world as there's not a lot of money in it (comparatively). And we don't execute children. Or anyone else for that matter. All things i am very very proud of and why i love this country. We're not perfect by a long shot. But we're alright as they go.

I guess the important thing in the long run is that whoever wins (i want Obama but predict Mccain for now) it's gonna be a first. Either the first non-white President or the first lady Vice President. Both of which are a big deal whether they should be or not. These are interesting times.