Yes, tonight (our time) the voting starts properly in the USA. Finally. It may be expensive and messy, but its not a bad system compared to many.
I'm hoping for an Obama victory. McCain was OK when he was a centrist outsider, but he's since rolled over on every major issue [taxes, abortion, war, right wing], and then let the Republican Party Machine make him pick an ignorant, inexperienced, right-wing pro-life Christian nutcase as VP. Simply amazing irresponsibility, to pick someone like that just to pander to the prejudices of swathes of the great unwashed and to try and squeak a victory.
Whereas I think Obama can pretty quickly restore a lot of the world's faith in the USA, and he will be more centrist. And Biden will be a solid Foreign Affairs focused VP.
Its a pity that Bush, through his incompetent leadership helped by the rest of the Republicans, is handing him a country in such terrible shape: economy in the dumps and getting a lot worse, huge budget and trade deficits, massive debt in both Government and personal spheres, housing market crashing, 2 wars, low ratings, rising tensions with Russia, and a domestic polical environment more polarised than ever... How anyone in their right minds can even imagine rewarding the Republicans with another term in office is... beyond me. Bush should be impeached.
Good Luck Mr. Obama. You are sure going to need it.
And remember, there are a lot more than just 300 million Americans who will be counting on you to do better than the idiot you are replacing.
