Presidential Politics from abroad

In Bucerias at least, no one cares who becomes President of the United States of America. And the longer I am here, the less I think about it. Most notable since I have been here is the continuing collapse of the one-time front-runners Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton. Rudy was expected--he's a one trick pony, and I never thought just running as the Mayor of 9/11 was a winning strategy. John Edwards looked viable very early on, but quickly settled into third. To me, the most shocking collapse has been Hillary's. Just when she finally seemed to have gained momentum and buried the racial back and forth with the Obama campaign, Bill Clinton's remarks have resulted in a political firestorm.

The blowback from the racially charged statements may even be fatal. Teddy Kennedy, basically the head liberal, a few weeks ago brokered the truce between the two camps on using racial politics. Then Mount Bill erupted. And the ashes are still coming down. The Kennedy's were so outraged, they publicly endorsed Obama (with the exception of Kathleen), and Ted Kennedy is going to hit the campaign trail hard for his fellow Senator. Wow. Maybe things will swing back, but this blow looks serious. It's like the whole campaign on both sides is no longer something to actually care about; instead, we now watch it with various degrees of amusement and disgust.


How shocked can we be? After all, this is the same guy who sent this postcard to his mother when he was in college!




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