The view from abroad: Get it together, America

[IDemo]

In a year, we'll know who will occupy the Oval Office. Until then, the world seems by turns bemused, befuddled, and bewildered by America's long, colorful and convoluted race for the White House.

"I just hope, and I do believe, that the American people do understand that they're electing one of the most serious positions on the planet -- and you've got to have serious people for that," Alastair Campbell, former spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair, told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Wednesday.

The Republican debates, he said, feel "incredibly parochial."

"Watching them, you just get the sense sometimes that they're slightly making it up as they go along."

http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/11/world/amanpour-america-election/index.html

[MBS]

2. This:

"I just hope, and I do believe, that the American people do understand that they're electing one of the most serious positions on the planet -- and you've got to have serious people for that," Alastair Campbell, former spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair, told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Wednesday.

Please, please, may we voters take our responsibility seriously this election . . .especially in this particular time,"a guy you want to have a beer with" cannot be the criterion for voting. Oh, yeah, and actually taking the trouble to register and to vote at all would be a good step forward.
(Yes, I know that I am preaching to the choir here).

[malthaussen]

3. Masterful British understatement.

Do we break it gently to Mr Campbell that the candidates are making it up as they go along?

-- Mal