Been there, done that

There's an aspect to the West Wing vs 24 theme which Matt explores which he's missed out. And it's important. It's the real reason why Americans felt comfortable voting for Barack Obama.

There's already been a black President. This man (and his brother, of course).

UPDATE: Er, do I really have to say I am joking? Yes, I know it's fiction.

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Political earthquake

You should read this. It's an article of remarkable foresight by Christopher Caldwell, entitled The Southern Captivity of the GOP. Today, the GOP is a shadow of its former self, a Southern rump.

If you want to understand what is happening in the US underneath the surface, my advice is to read the above article, and almost anything by Ruy Texeira.

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The enormity of the situation

Simon Heffer's colums might be an acquired taste, but his internal Telegraph emails are always something to be savoured. Here's a samizdat copy of today's, which is a treat:

(UPDATE: Ouch, what a howler. I meant columns. Mea culpa.)
(UPDATE: Wow, what a howler. Ouch. I mean, of course, .)

Dear Colleagues
It should perhaps make us feel better about the mistakes that we all make in our use of English that the new leader of the free world, Barack Obama, managed to slip up in his victory speech in Chicago in the small hours of Wednesday morning. He spoke of the "enormity" of the task facing his country. If you don't know why he was wrong, please do feel free to look the word up in the nearest dictionary.

While these notes attempt to be entertaining, there must be a brief lapse into

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I have a piece in today's Times. Here it is:

Tomorrow the Employment Bill reaches its final stages in the House of Commons. Section 18 of the original Bill would have allowed trade unions to exclude members of the British National Party and other racists. The Bill that will be presented to MPs tomorrow, however, has a very different version - one that would achieve the precise opposite of the Bill's initial intent. The House of Lords altered it so greatly that it now protects BNP members' union membership. Tomorrow Labour MPs will propose an amendment to restore the original section allowing unions to expel BNP members.

This is not, as it has been presented, a question of trade union rights. Rather, the issue at stake is the very notion of freedom of association. It is in everyone's interest - even, counterintuitively, that of BNP members

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Smut and nonsense

Brilliant post by Adam Boulton:

 Americans are thinking hard about the direction their country is heading.
As I was coming through immigration, even the Homeland Security officer checking my passport looked at my name and asked if I was related to John Bolton, the former UN ambassador.

On TV, their talk show hosts such as Jay Leno, David Letterman and John Stewart are funny but serious - cutting through the spin to put the candidates to the test.

And they don't do pee, bum, belly, poo jokes either.

Leno and Letterman's wise cracks epitomise what the public is really wondering about their next President.

And what to we get? Jonathan Ross asking David Cameron if he used to masturbate about Mrs Thatcher.

We love to attack the US media such as Fox and MSNBC for bias - but what they are doing

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