Commentary From Mr. Pickwick In Oz

An excursion away from the weather. Mr. Pickwick (Guy Weller) is a bookseller in Katoomba, Australia (in the Blue Mountains west of Sidney). He, and his computer, "Hannibal," provide political commentary and astoundingly accurate predictions regarding U.S. politics and elections. I've been following him for over three years now on a booksellers' chatboard. His blast below regarding the U.S. media and the current political situation is something I can't resist posting.
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### However I felt that they would have been torn apart on some of their messages by the senior British political journalists. The other candidates seemed very lightweight and it was hard to believe that they were standing for a leading position. ###


Hi PhBooks,

This is a feature of US politics. Their media there is extremely wet and a sort of MacDonalds Media - it has no real teeth or spunk like the British media. All soggy beef and second-rate melted cheese dripping over inedible buns.

The candidates there can say and do more or less as they wish, and the media clucks and coos like so many geese in the yard - hisses a bit, and rushes about with flapping wings, but does NOT get savage at any point, or go in for the kill. Add to this the more or less complete incompetence and - dare I say it - ignorance of the US media and so-called political pundits, and you have a political commentary system which is more or less out of Walt Disney.

Hence your astonishment, which I share, but which I have long since learned to absorb and largely ignore.
Whereas you in Britain and we in Australia expect (and get) strong beer from our political journalists, in America they expect merely a milkshake from theirs.

The excruciating ignorance and lack of knowledge of their own political systems, history and political methods from US journalists and even their so-called "pundits" simply beggars belief on many occasions, and leaves those of us used to more sophisticated and knowledgeable inputs from our media folk sometimes quite bewildered.

The systems of "polling" in the US are so absurd (as Hannibal and I have demonstrated on several dozens of occasions in here, including several over the last month or so) as to render them perfectly meaningless, and even a little dangerous in that these ridiculous "surveys" can actually influence end-results over there to some extent (smaller than fondly imagined by their media).

In all, when it comes to US political reportage and associated polling etc., you are talking a circus rather than a piece of coherent theatre. The USA is horribly mis-served by its political media, and this fact helps feed second-rate candidatures, such as we are seeing in this GOP race at present.

None of Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry or Michelle Bachmann could survive for more than a week of media exposure in Britain or Australia - all would simply be laughed from the room for the clowns they are. Mitch Daniels would survive our far more intensive media analysis, and funnily enough, so would your "lightweight" in this one, Rick Santorum. Huntsman probably would endure under our spotlights as well.

Cheers,

Guy Weller (Mr Pickwick)