Even here, on what some like to call enlightened Mudcat, you get the reactionary nastiness that plagues decent society.

"Elected because he was blackish."

You know, any of us could have said that, as most of us understand irony. Sadly, this was said as part of a post to condemn him.

As I said, over here he is well received. In history class, we are taught about USA segregation and for some, it was taught in current affairs, so in a way we saw the election of a black guy as progress rather than the norm.

The vast number of British people would however see his politics as more to the right than many of ours, as we did Clinton, Carter etc. Also, presumably like many Americans, we can't understand why he hasn't pushed his creed further and been more proactive on gun law, capital punishment and equality of opportunity, especially as the latter is bound up in "land of the free" slogans.

By the way, like any country, we have our mix of saints and sinners but contrary to the foaming at the mouth lies sometimes put forward by one specimen, nobody wants to go back to capital punishment here. The news article this morning about the proposed executions about to take place in two states are more concerned with "are they still insisting on barbaric practice?" rather than the crimes of the prisoners.