The Laughing Armadillo presents her views on World politics from a UK perspective.

Warning: The following content may be offensive to sexists, racists, homophobes, Conservatives, Republicans and sociopaths.
Over the next few months I will be concentrating mostly on the US primaries and subsequent elections. That's a whole lot of crazy for you to enjoy.

I'm worried for humanity, disturbed and furious.
I have become the Raging Armadillo.

Monday, 16 January 2012

USA Presidential Candidacy - Huntsman Drops Out of the Race

Just when I was starting to give up that anything interesting was going to happen until the South Carolina Primary, Jon Huntsman, the only one teetering on the edge of madness (if only for identifying himself as a Republican), as opposed to basking in it as the other's do... has dropped out of the race. This comes despite coming in third in the New Hampshire primary . He's the newest casualty in a long line of candidates without enough bottle to endure the almost inevitable dismantling of their career through personal attack after personal attack. Its getting to the point where so little separates these candidates on policy that the only poo they can metaphorically fling at each other comes in the form of private scandals and personal mistakes. Its not only ridiculous and trivial at times, but also starkly brings to the fore-front another attribute which they all possess in equal amounts; Hypocrisy. Something all politicians are good at, but that American ones are particularly famous for.

Its been a long week of poo flinging. Mostly at Romney. Mostly for speaking French. I thought lots of people spoke French. I thought a bi-lingual President might have an edge in foreign policy. Oh, no... Its bad because the only other politician in America who speaks French is a disconnected Democrat who ran against Bush in 2004 and the only reason I remember his name is because it bares resemblance to my favourite rubber faced Canadian comic – the forgettable John Carrey.


More Bain Capital discussion presented itself, this time boomeranging to highlight Gingrich's hypocrisy further, but also lead to him scoring an own goal for the entire Republican Party. Sam Sedar clearly points out, as did Jon Stewart, that dear old Gingrich, and Perry, have attacked Romney for being mega-rich and exploiting the very system that they advocate, the very system they see as a right for all Americans. Funny how when you're the one that feels exploited its suddenly a horrible thing that someone else is using their accumulated wealth against you. The political system isn't fair. Neither is the economic one.

Watch to the end for another of Romney's 'Rich Jerk' gaffs. It has a faint whiff of a lot of the crap that falls out of Cameron's mouth, especially before he was elected.

I have mixed emotions about Huntsman dropping out. On the one hand having a moderate who was once a foreign ambassador for Obama out of the race bodes well for the Democrats and although he's no leader of the year I'd rather have Obama in office more than anyone who wants to lower, and in some cases scrap, taxes on the rich and repeal Roe Vs. Wade – which allowed women's rights to supersede that of an unborn foetus thereby allowing women the right to choose. On the other hand his dropping out, as I understand it, because of lack of support in South Carolina I believe is a sad thing. Of all the candidates he was probably the best of a bad bunch. He kept one foot firmly on the fence but still came out in support of Civil Unions between same sex couples. A far cry from Santorum's and Cos backwards, and highly offensive, views on gay marriage. He was also the only candidate to clearly state that he believes in the theory of evolution – making him the only candidate who isn't crazy. AND trusts scientists on global warming, something that even Romney, who is considered a moderate, can't seem to make his mind up about. Now, believing things based on tangible evidence... That's so not Republican. It makes it ever more clear why he dropped out. Its a sorry state of affairs when the only candidate who isn't deluded feels he needs to drop out. He is now extending his support to 'moderate' rich jerk Mitt Romney, a fellow Mormon and runner up in the 'Not-as-crazy-as-the-others' competition. We'll only know on Saturday whether he made the right decision for his party. CNN certainly think so.


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