What an incredible fuss it all is! I mean the entire thing Americans do in regards to their presidency. The primaries, the campaign itself, the inauguration, the White House and all that goes with it, absolutely extraordinary amount of fuss.

It's not like that in most other countries, if in any. Perhaps it is like that in certain bizarre dictatorships such as North Korea or China (the amount of procedural and ceremonial fuss over "the leader", I mean), but not anywhere else except the USA.

It's way over the top.

Trouble is, if you live there and are used to it...well, then you take it as "normal". ;-)

It's the great imperial presidency of the world. Nothing else comes even close. You would have to live in Canada and see how low key a matter a change of government is here...and then you'd get what I mean.

We do not think our prime minister is the Father of the nation. We think he's just another politician in a suit...strictly temporary...not that big a deal, really. Small potatoes. Most Canadians don't even know what the official residence of the prime minister of Canada looks like and they don't care. What does it look like? Well, it looks like a house. A nice house on a nice piece of property, on a residential street with some trees, period. It does not look like the Acropolis, the Taj Mahal, or the White House.

No wonder your elections are so long and overblown...after all, you're electing "God" for the next four years, right?