I'm so bored of the USA

I was sitting in the office yesterday, with the rolling TV news on in the background. Apart from the impending end of the world, the main story of the day seemed to be the political storm over whether Barack Obama was talking about dishy gun-nut and Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin when he used the phrase "lipstick on a pig".

Sorry, what?

Is this really what interests people in the UK? Sadly the answer seems to be yes. In the newspapers, blogs and talking shops of Britain, everyone seems to have been caught up in the wave of Obamania. And not just here either. When the Messiah jetted into Berlin on his grand tour, an estimated 200,000 ecstatic Germans turned out to see their hero.

Not the president, mind you. The candidate.

If a politician started banging on in florid prose about "hope" and "change" here they'd get laughed out of town. But put it in the mouth of a black American and suddenly we're like schoolgirls at a boyband gig.

How parochial does it make us seem? And what does it say about the quality of politics in this country that people are so obsessed with the petty minutiae of an election campaign happening thousands of miles away?

A lot of the talk seems to be based on a kind of supercilious sneering attitude that the stupid Merkins don't know what's best for them and need enlightenment from we cultured Europeans. This sort of middle-class snobbishness the last time around ended up with the infamous "Clark County incident" where 11,000 letters were sent to voters in a key swing area by Guardian readers telling them to vote for Democrat no-hoper John Kerry.

Not surprisingly, the Clark County residents didn't like being told what to do by a bunch of pompous foreign do-gooders, and responded with torrents of hilariously-phrased abuse. Responses to the Guardian can be summed up in the pithy "KEEP YOUR FUCKIN' LIMEY HANDS OFF OUR ELECTION."

Ouch.

Ross has his own take on it here.

So please people, let's all have a bit of self-respect and not get obsessed with the flashing lights of the American election.