American republican race - isn't it a joke?

[rosajam]

How can these hard - right politicians in America be taken seriously by the average American citizen? The recent "rape" gaffe by Akin ( think that is his name) is incredible. it appears some mystical intervention prevents pregnancy in rape cases according to him. When Americans have such global influence it scares me a little that the tea-party movement has such support.

I want Obama to be president again and I'm generally believing he has little contest - or do many Americans really put up with these extreme members in the republican movement?

Given the popularity of people like Sarah Palin and the bizarre stuff she comes out with, you'd have to assume that there's a sizeable audience for it. America was founded by people who thought seventeenth century England was a bit too wishy-washy liberal for their liking and, ever since, they've reserved the right to hold whatever extreme opinions they see fit.

Sadly not a joke :(.
Obama is highly controversial. I find it bizarre too, but there are people who think that Obama is Evil: I have relatives who think this way, and it's nothing to do with race, everything to do with "values".

At the end of the day, he hasn't fixed the economy & he doesn't quite have the charisma (or pragmatism) that Clinton did, either.

Just heard Akin is determined to run - I think good because it will bring some notoriety to republican movement. Obama is 22% ahead with women. Think Tony Blair pooled the female vote.

Obama seems level-headed and has really moved a step forward with public health. Economy is a global issue - Coalition also not getting it right.

It is scary, supposedly such a civilised country espouses such dreadful right-wingers seemingly against human rights. Death penalty one example. and afraid.

That Akin comment was shocking, even more so when you realise that he's actually a member of the House Science Committee... yes that's right he is deciding on science policy and hasn't got the faintest idea of human biology...

If you listen to the right-wing talk radio here (sometimes have it on in the car but it's dangerous as it gives me road rage), the people who phone in are a mix of religious types and just your old-fashioned conservatives, the type who would read the Daily Mail and vote Tory in the UK but with a dash of crazy thrown in.

Average Republican voters that you speak to here really don't talk that differently to a Tory voter (Scroungers spending our taxes! Single mothers! Immigrants! etc) BUT there is a rabid right-wing media here - Fox News etc - that is far more extreme than anything in the UK. They whip up injured feelings and create divisions, mainly over hot-button issues like abortion, gay marriage and push politicians to be more and more extreme. That's the main difference with the UK, in my view.

Yes, I've heard about Fox - peddling hysteria. It is the lack of education bit that confuses me. How can someone representing Science for America be so bizarre and let's face it vile in what he says. It seems so ignorant. American education is supposed at higher level to be best in world now - what is happening to the general population - they follow such bizarre ideas?

Sarah Palin (avid Creationist) is the daughter of a science high school teacher, who is avidly not a Creationist. You couldn't make it up.

Akin's comment was profoundly stupid but doesn't differ from George Galloway's 'not needing consent before insertion' bollocks for sheer idiocy.

Politicians of both sides of the ideological divide peddle utter crap on a daily basis. I'm still not convinced that there's a single one of them who understands why the country is in the mess that it is in. Why the hell we give these morons the power that we do is beyond me.

A three year PPE from Oxford and they think that they can run the world. Cretins.