Fun with politics

The big US political news is that good old Joe Biden won't be running for president. It's interesting that during his “non run” he did better than the two times he actually tried for the job. Perhaps had he thrown his hat in the ring his poll numbers would have plummeted.

For practical purposes the Democratic race is down to Hillary and Bernie. Yeah, there's some other guys running -extra points if you know their names without looking it up. However, you've got to do better than 1% to get noticed. The field has narrowed quite a bit, all before the first primary.

On the Republican side, against all main stream media expectations (and prayers?), Trump is still the man to beat. Interesting times.

What really fascinates me is the recent Canadian election. Justin Trudeau was elected PM by a significant margin. I remember his father, Pierre Trudeau. Pierre was PM pretty much from the late 60s until about the mid 80s, if memory serves. He was such a flamboyant and intelligent figure that even Americans knew who he was.

No one thinks Justin is as smart as his old man was, however, by all accounts he's a liberal like his old man. All that means is that Canada goes back to being Canada.

I followed the Canadian election by listening to Quebec radio over the Internet. I've been trying to improve my comprehension of the French language. As it turns out understanding only half of what's being said is more than enough to follow politics.

I think from now on I'll only listen to French language coverage of the US election. As it turns out, politics make more sense if you only catch half the words.

-Sixbears