Mr Eugenides points to yet another example of unbelievable crassness amongst those vying for the highest office in the USA, this time from Mick Huckabee:

"It is now difficult to keep track of the vast array of publicly endorsed and institutionally supported aberrations — from homosexuality and pedophilia to sadomasochism and necrophilia."

Since when has paedophilia been publicly and institutionally supported?

Anyhoo, America has now had four years to find someone with the competence to take over from Bush when he finally is forced from office in just over a year’s time (by a constitutional amendment rather than the Democrats). And frankly the line-up is more than a little depressing. It really says something when the most capable looking candidates for both parties are the most tedious and predictable on both sides – Clinton (despite the nepotism) and Giuliani.

But this is a crucial election for the US. They have had eight years of President Bush – perhaps the worst President since Herbert Hoover. He has done massive damage to the image of the US abroad. He has fucked the economy, and left an already divided country even more divided through his passionate embrace of the religious fundamentalists who call themselves the Christian Coalition. They need someone to come into the White House who is not an extremist. They need someone who is intelligent and intuitive. They need someone who believes a diplomatic solution is not just a precursor to war. And the Christian fundamentalists like Romney and Huckabee, or the Pakistan baiting Obama, are not going to make the grade.

It may be an alarmist point of view, but there is some truth in the idea that this is an election where America chooses their position in the world for the future. Other economies and other nations, like China and (under the iron grip of Putin) a resurgent Russia, could very easily come to challenge the US’s claim to being the world’s only superpower. The US needs to make the choice of whether they will treat the Bush administration as an aberration, or a template for their political future.