Byrnesys Blabberings

I think it says something about both the international mindset of 21st Century Britain, and the USA’s super power influence that what is essentially an election (caucus for primary) for an election (primary for candidate for an election (presidential) in the US Political has attained such media interest.

If your a brit and confused by the talk of caucuses, primaries and presidential elections, the BBC have set up a simple guide to the US Political process here. 

Unless you paid good attention though you could be fooled into thinking it was only the democrats who are holding caucuses as the Obama vs. Clinton story is the only one making headlines. Though Maybe that is indicative of the more left leaning BBC’s underlying aspirations for a democrat in the white house? The democrat’s have certainly got their fill of characters whereas the republican candidates, to many unenthusiastic observers seem like another bunch of WASP’s.

It is worth remembering with all the hype of new hampshire and Iowa that, as Edwards is keen to remind his supporters that "there are still 48 states to go" and although the US looks to these caucuses to set the standards these small states influence can be vastly over exaggerated.

That being said it’s hard to imagine how the democrat nomination will be anything but a two horse race, the horses of course being Clinton and Obama.

In the republican camp things are less clear, at least from this side of the atlantic. Even though McCain and Huckabee have scored early victories Romney is certainly not out of the running and may be able to spin the middle ground to his advantage where McCain and Huckabee have boxed themselves in to identifying with voters on primarily social and religious grounds. If I had to take a guess I would say it’ll be a Romney vs. Huckabee contest. Any one else out there, especially the ones that count in the states themselves, have an opinion about who the 2 main candidates may be in the final stages of the party nominations?

UPDATE: My favourite UK political commentator Nick Robinson has written a very interesting outline of ways in which the caucus elections will reflect on the current UK political environment. He also gave this reponse to those who wish an end to the comparisons between the 2 political processes:

Those who insist that there cannot be any read across from the votes of small American states to British politics will be ignored because they simply don’t get it. The political classes are gripped by this campaign. It will continue to feed into commentary, oratory and prediction all year – sometimes absurdly, occasionally aptly. The battle between Clinton and Obama, McCain, Romney and Huckabee is, like it or not, a part of Britain’s electoral struggle. – Nick Robinson Newslog