Three Ring Circus

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As an Australian, I watch the three ring circus of US Presidential elections with immense amusement. The 'cult' of personality is never so well exemplified. In Australia the leaders of the political parties must be elected members of parliament, and are then chosen by their own parliamentary peers to lead the party, and the national leader (Prime MInister) is the leader of the party with the most parliamentary seats. Thus, when it comes to federal election time, although there is some small element of the sort of hysterical personal attacks so prevalent it seems in US politics, mostly the electorate is dealing with party platforms and voting accordingly. I suppose thoughtful US voters would do the same, but the concept of voting for a personality rather than a party just strikes me as ludicrous. One of the other advantages of our system is that if a party leader loses the plot along the way, he can be replaced at any time but a vote of his parliamentary colleagues (as has just happened here with the main opposition party). If each individual MP's political future hangs to a large degree on public perceptions of his party's policy, he is not going to be too happy with a leader who is doing extremely unpopular things, like sending troops to Iraq. That said, I hope Obama wins - we need a rest from ultra-conservative world leaders. Lash