Not a political blog

I do have opinions on world politics. That includes opinions on US politics, and the US presidential election. Given that the US president has the power to declare war on my country or put me into a jail without a trial (which, admittedly, he is unlikely to do in my case, but has done to others), it would be strange for me to *not* have an opinion on that. So it would be easy for me write more about politics, do a funny political blog. It would be easy to blog about how it takes $150,000 worth of lipstick to turn a pitbull into a vice president, or how children know best what is really scary this Halloween. But the problem with that kind of post is that they are completely irrelevant, even if that is what people like to read in political blogs.

Yeah, it's easy to make fun of some of the stranger aspects of presidential elections. But how much Sarah Palin spends on her wardrobe, or whether she looks better on a bike than Obama really shouldn't affect people's votes. The thing is that if McCain is elected, he'll be the oldest first term president ever. That means that there is a chance that he could die in the next 4 years, in which case Sarah Palin would become president of the United States of America. And what people should do is seriously consider whether she has the qualification for that. As they should judge the qualifications of the two presidential candidates and the other vice presidential candidate. And they should ask themselves whether they would like the kind of politics that these candidates would try to introduce.

And these real subjects aren't funny at all. Abortion rights aren't funny, neither pro nor contra. Universal health care isn't funny. Finding the right moment to get out of Iraq isn't funny. So a lot of this circus that the presidential campaigns have turned into, the bad jokes, the mud-slinging, the accusations of who has ever sat next to which shady character during a political dinner, the "I'm more American than you are" posing, is just deplorable.

I can't vote myself, and I can't tell you how to vote if you are American. But I would like to ask you to ignore the circus, and try to imagine how the US and the world would look like with whatever candidate you like. And then please don't stay at home, but go out and vote. The current French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been elected with 85% of the eligible voters having cast their vote. US presidential elections usually just have around 60% turnout. You don't want the French surrender monkeys beat you, do you?