Does Obama have a real chance now?
I am not American either.
They all look as bad as each other to me. But then, I think all politicians should be taken outside and slowly strangled to death with a wet, smelly dish cloth.
I have never known a single one that wasn't self serving.
Even these guys - why won't they commit to getting out of Iraq? 3 letters - O I LActually, I can .I agree that politicians are just the tip of the iceberg and that the real decisions are made by powerful interests we don't see. That is an over simplification of course,but yes I think the strings are pulled everywhere by the boys in the back room...all over the world. The golden rule dontcha know--he who has the gold makes the rule
That said I do think the specific candidates can and do have an impact--particularly those with powerful personalities They really do change things--nothing is more powerful than ideas -- examples? Winston Churchill, Roosevelt( dare I include Hitler?) Wasn't there a big difference in the styles of Bill Clinton and George Bush as president? Is Gordon Brown a clone of Tony Blair?
Yes and no - despite the current poor state of the economy, the only part in real trouble is the low end housing market - other parts of the economy are quite happy thank you. There is a lot to be said for a low value dollar
and there are many people very happy with the current state of affairs.
GW is not a good figure head though. At least Clinton could string a sentence together and got some respect as a leader in the World stage.Very interesting odds, Ralph --right on for the moment, but all could change very quickly. I wouldn't count Hillary out just yet. What a good outline of the basic differences between Dems and Reps too. I think it must be very confusing for people coming from a parliamentary system or another form of government to fathom our rather odd, hybridized system. Add to the mix a crazy quilt of state primary elections and caucuses and the fact that culturally and in many other ways there is as much difference between an American from New England and one from the deep South as there is between a Frenchman and a German--well it all gets very confusing I am sure. Oh yes, and each state has its own election laws and procedures as well.
I think the odds could change a number of times between now and November. Today's front-runner can be tomorrow's underdog in the blink of a spin-meister's eye. I haven't a clue whether it will be Hillary, Obama or McCain--and we still haven't heard from Bloomberg One thing is for sure. We are in a mess. Do you think if we asked the Brits nicely they would take us back??Our system is just as bad. I was amazed to discover that the US does not have proportional representation. It can hardly be called a democracy when you have only two choices and can barely tell the difference between the two - UK and US - and we don't want you back
Re; proportional representation. At the 2004 election, I was in NY and was talking to a couple of German tourists. They were perplexed by our electoral college system; they said that in Germany, every vote is the same and whoever wins the majority of votes wins the election.
I explained that the US is structured with far more state sovereignty than most non-Americans realize, and, besides, our electoral college system (over 100 years old) is similar to the weighting of votes in the Council of the EU...which is only a few years old. I asked them why Poland has almost the same number of votes as Germany, which is more than twice as large. They didn't seem to understand what I was talking about.
The Treaty of Nice, signed recently by the EU, makes the ancient US electoral college system look completely equitable:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_NiceIt's the same the whole world over< see me singing that old music hall ditty> I agree Mark, the rich and powerful in any system call the shots and even as we hub away here on hubpages, backroom deals are being struck in the US, GB, the EU and a few other places. but I can't help liking to watch. It's a bit like being a cobra watching a mongoose
LOL - I also enjoy myself.
but this is a bit of a cop-out. And is really more about an internal attitude and doesn't really change anything other than your own perception. Don't get me wrong - I no longer dwell on these things and do my best to have a positive mental attitude.
But there are things I have seen in my lifetime - for instance - I grew up in Holland. When I was a kid, we used to skate on the canals because they froze over every winter - without fail.
Holland has not seen the canals freeze in more than ten years now - And both the US and UK "authorities" will stand there and argue and argue that there is no such thing as climate change and our lifestyle has nothing to do with it if there is such a thing. And allow the corporations to spend millions producing "factual scientific reports" that refute the whole idea.
The problem is, we have a whole generation growing up having great difficulty sorting the facts from the BS - and those that do see it are labeled "conspiracy theorists" and "trouble makers."
I still go and sit my the nearly-devoid-of-edible-fish ocean and enjoy the view though. But my wife is scared to eat Tuna.It's not a cop-out at all, although I agree with robie2 that the tricky part is exercising that wisdom part. I'm not suggesting that we all stand idly by and do nothing; I'm saying beyond what each of us can do individually there is no use in getting upset about things that we have no power to change.
Re: global warming. I think this is due to the fact that the British tradition (of which we still are, despite getting rid of you over 200 years ago) is one of deep skepticism of authority. No matter who is in the White House, you are guaranteed to have at least 50% of the country hate him and think everything he says is bullshit. We can not ever agree on anything, and actually I think that's one thing that makes our tradition great. We've gotten used to moving things forward when we have a 50.1% majority 
That said, I think the domain of conspiracy theorists and troublemakers are those who refute global warming. Most Americans and most Britons believe that global warming exists and that it is the result of man's activity. Even GW Bush, who is in complete hock to the petroleum industry, has come around. Sure, there are and will be skeptics, but who said the presence of skeptics prevents you from moving forward? The fact is that the majority can often get things wrong, like we did with the Y2K bug, that emboldens the skeptics. Other skeptics, like oil company executives, have obvious interests in holding positions contrary to the popular view.
I also remember the Dutch lamenting that they haven't had an Elfstedetocht (sp?) in decades - I had really wanted to see one and I think the winter of 2002-2003 got pretty close.
No, I guess it's not a cop out. I was thinking more that people tend to ignore the problem rather than just not let it bother them - and sometimes it can take years of frustration before you actually realize that there is nothing you can do about it
There's just a big difference between denial and wisely accepting you can do nothing. 
Dutch spelling LOL - I lived in Scheveningen - it took me 2 years to learn how to pronounce it. I haven't been back to Holland for years, but they froze just about every year when I lived there as a child. The last time they froze was 1998, and the last time they ran the Elfstedentocht was in 1997Not going to argue with you
Which is unusual for me.
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