By Ray Fleming
Whatever today's results of America's mid-term elections may show, there is one thing that can confidently be said about the elections themselves -- they have been conducted in the most blinkered and ignorant way imaginable. It is of course inevitable and right that jobs should have been the dominating theme; when unemployment seems stuck at ten per cent it is difficult for voters without work or living with the fear of redundancy to think about any other issue. That does not mean, however, that candidates seeking election should ignore all other subjects or that the media should allow them to do so.
The United States is still the most powerful and influential country in the world and as such its citizens should be concerned about the role it is currently playing in global politics. Yet, from what one can glean from the direct TV news broadcasts from the US and from the press coverage available on the internet, the big international issues have gone by default in these elections. Jon Stewart of The Daily Show who makes a point of criticising these failures of the media failed himself when Barack Obama appeared on his Show last week. Foreign policy was not mentioned, nor was climate change. The war in Afghanistan and all the implications for future policy that stem from it might not be taking place for all the attention it has had.