Agree with LH.

Still, the more the Republican candidacy programme reveals just what nutters the Republican candidates are the better Obama's chances. I'd prefer Kucinich but Obama is less bad than any Republican - and with a second term he may be less in thrall to the corporatocracy.

The underlying sicknesses in the US political system are two fold - first the way that anonymous money can buy influence. Stopping this starts with undoing "Citizens United" at least to the extent of re-establishing that donor identity is always transparent, then the limitation of electioneering expenditure (preferably a centrally funded equal-handed system) and then the removal of corrupt lobbying. We have had that badly in the UK but my impression is that the US is far worse.

The second is the US filibuster which enables a minority to block legislative business and has been cynically used for that purpose in this administration.