Sarah Palin

I think everyone needs to care about this election as it is posibly the most importent one ever.

Every US election is important, but the idea that this one represents a massive turning point is slightly over the top. The next president is likely to do things differently from Bush in any case, since Bush has the the lowest popularity ratings in recent history. However, Obama is not going to completely change the way that the US engages with the world or make a huge difference to major policies. Look at how his rhetoric changed once he got the nomination.

so here's the thing - US politics are not about who's policies are best - in order to get the populist vote both parties have to be broadly centre-right on immigration, abortion, the "war", welfare etc. differences are about degrees of variance on a theme.

So the only remaining battleground is "who do you trust". And that's about personality, team dynamic, etc. People know that the real power is with corporations, not with politicians.

Lose the abortion reference and you've described the UK as well.