Idea IS the format

Viewed from afar, it's hard to imagine a more one-sided US presidential election.

We ought to have learnt from the last eight years that the president of the United States of America is, first and foremost, a spokesperson. It turns out that this is as much as we could have expected from Dubya, and, even then, we may have misoverestimated him.

Great presidents can distinguish themselves as great spokespeople, when they speak for an idea, giving the citizens residing at the heart of any functional democracy a moral voice, as well as a political and economic one. Occasionally politics produces a man with the potential to deliver this kind of inspirational leadership, fronting an administration more broadly schooled in 'the art of the possible'.

I'm watching closely, hoping that this US presidential election can deliver such an individual, and such an administration, and that the electorate will be ready to vote for their better angels, rather than yielding once again to the politics of intimidation. Please. For all our sakes.