Have Atlantic politics ever been so fascinating? 'Over there' we await the results of the mid-term elections with fingers, toes, legs and everything crossed in the hope and expectation that the Dems will be slaughtered. Of course, life being life, and politics being politics, it probably won't be as drastic as that but even so one expects 'the cousins' to get a grip and smack this insidious socialism right where it hurts most - in the Senate! With both houses of Congress under Republican control there can only be one single aim for the Republican leadership, and that is to do whatever it takes to ensure a Republican presidency in 2016.
Obama and his apparatchiks have already demonstrated over and over that they hold the law of the land in contempt, particularly when it comes to Presidential privilege. It is essential that the Republican Congress prepares itself for a raft of Presidential diktats which, if they are constantly opposed, will allow the Dems to paint them as mere obstructionists. Thus, it is vital the the GOP comes prepared with its own detailed and thought-through raft of measures which will force Obama to use his Presidential veto. Thus, will the biter be bit! Alas, whether the Republicans can get their act together sufficiently to agree on a series of broad political measures likely to appeal to ordinary voters as opposed to the mega-rich tycoons who pour their money in and expect some return, time alone will tell.
On top of that, of course, starting in January next year, the Republican party must begin the process - dread thought! - of choosing a Presidential candidate. All I can hope and pray for is that they keep the process open and fair - but above all - short! Fat chance, I fear. It will probably drag on and on with the US media cocking their legs all over each and every Republican candidate whilst 'St. HillBilly' is allowed to continue walking on water. I still cling belatedly to one improbable dream, that 'HillBilly' (or just Billy!) stumbles and falls in a scandalous septic tank, at which point, enter stage Left, 'Fauxcahontas' Warren, a woman who positively oozes ambition from every orifice and who is the absolute darling of the 'Marxist Tendency' in the Democrat party.
Meanwhile, 'over here', everything is bubbling nicely. The only problem for a nerd like me is that I haven't a clue what's really going on. As you regulars will know, I have a less than an exalted opinion of 'Dim Dave's' intelligence but a tiny part of me wonders if he can really be as thick as he appears. My gut feeling is that Dave is, by nature, a middle-of-the-road man, or, if you prefer, a man without a single conviction in his body. Fair enough, we've had a few like that and anyway conviction politicians are only as good as their convictions! His entire premiership has been plagued by Europe, a subject about which I suspect he knows little and cares even less. However, what he does care about very much indeed is being pronounced Prime Minister next May. Sometimes, I suspect, he must totter down to his office in No.10 in the morning and groan at the latest embarrassment inflicted on him by those damned Berlin-Brussels apparatchiks. Thus, as Nigel Farage uses his rugby scrum skills to push Dave ever closer to the line, so the Eurocrats are busy building a wall - a Berlin wall, perhaps? - around him to keep him immobile.
All this makes Dave look a bit feeble and inept but perhaps, just perhaps, he might be 'boxing clever'. If he can provoke 'Junker the Drunker' and the 'Kaiserin', to say nothing of 'Presidente Lurve-rat', to up the ante and start laying into the Brits with some real 'rubber truncheons' - they're awfully good at that sort of thing, you know, 'just over there' - he can then stick his chin up in the air, purse his little lips and announce to the British people that, alas, despite all his couageous efforts there will not be peace in our time - until we come out. Timing is all, perhaps early in the New Year would be best and will give him time to nick back the Union flag from Nigel and wrap it around himself.
Well, a man may dream, may he not?
