London Irish. Well, you may (with some difficulty) actually elect the President, but we have to put up with the stuff he does, so it's relevant enough who gets the job, and also what kind of process is involved. And we do get deluges with coverage in the media. And it's a good idea to keep an eye on it, becuase there's a tendency for the rest of the world to take America as a role model in all kinds of things. (Not in election techniques now though, I suspect.)

The general rule is that the bigger the country the more parochial the people living there tends to be. Well, it's natural enough, it feels self-sufficient, a world on its own. As England gets smaller, it gets more aware of the existence of the rest of the world as something more than a source of groceries. But America must feel an awful long way from most places, and even though hyphenated Americans have folk memories of other places, I get the impression these aren't always that close or accurate.