Whoops

Somebody at the Associated Press didn't properly proof their article:

Former Auburn football Terry Bowden returned to coaching Wednesday at Division II North Alabama.

Our Survey Said: We hope he doesn't get kicked too often.

Why I would, if I could (but haven't been talking about it)

First of all, let me say this clearly, lest you, my beloved readers, take the wrong message away from this: if I were a U.S. citizen, I would vote for Barack Obama, and probably would have cast my ballot some days ago. His social policies are generally more appealing to me than McCain, and economic policies are impossible to judge as the new president's actions will be governed far more over at least the next 12 months by events than by election pledges. Foreign policy, meanwhile, is always a case of doing what seems necessary - the incumbent isn't the only president in recent years to intervene militarily in a foreign country with dubious legitimacy.

Now, the important clause in that first paragraph is "would have cast my ballot some days ago", because barely hours into Election Day, I'm starting to have serious reservations. Not so much about the candidate, but about the actions of many of his fanboys and girls.

I hate to break the news to you, but Barack Obama is just another politician. Actually, if you look at his career thus far, it proves that. He can talk about change all he likes, and there's no doubt that he'll bring a different style of presidency than the last eight years, but at root, when it comes down to it, he's just another politician.

To blow my own trumpet a little here, I have form for calling this sort of thing. In the lead-up to the 1997 General Election, a young, charismatic leader of the Labour Party promised to change the face of British politics. I saw him as being just another politician underneath a veneer that made him irresistible to the voters. His name was Tony Blair, and he turned out to be just another politician. A lot of people ended up disappointed by it, and I fear the same will happen again over the next four years (not that it'll stop them re-electing him on 6 November 2012). From the first time I saw Obama in the primary campaign, he struck me as Blair II.

All things considered, I think it's a good job that the election's a foregone conclusion (as it has been since May) because if it were at all competitive, right now I wouldn't mind a McCain win simply because it would shut up the gloaters. As it is, it'll take a few unpopular actions (and those are inevitable) from President Obama for that to occur -- and when they happen, and people turn: this post will be on the record. I won't even need to say "I told you so".

For now, I'll be riding out the storm, knowing that the honeymoon won't last for ever.

Unintentional humour

[Warning: in order to protect from spoilers, this post is necessarily rather cryptic]

For our impending birthday, Our Survey Said was taken to see Avenue Q last night. (Our Survey Said: Go and see it. it's amazing.)

Other than the much trailed The Internet Is For Porn, we were particularly amused by the line in the closing number that, when the show opened in New York in the Spring of 2003, the cast and crew must have expected and hoped would have expired by now!

Our Survey Said: Oops! Still, only a few months to go now...

Oh dear

Take a look at this website advertising a "special September 11th commemorative".

Our Survey Said: Please tell us this is a spoof.

A controversial post

We noticed that the inexplicably-popular Russell Brand presented the MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles last night.

Brand, who is relatively unknown in the United States, said in his opening remarks that his "persona don't really work without fame".

Our Survey Said: It doesn't work even with fame...

Then, bringing back memories of the Guardian's ill-advised 2004 "Vote for Kerry" campaign (which turned out to be counter-productive), Brand endorsed Barack Obama for President of the United States "on behalf of the world".

Our Survey Said: That should be worth a point in the opinion polls for McCain.

In praise of Nicky Campbell

Our Survey Said well remembers growing up, when Nicky Campbell was a Radio 1 DJ and presenter of Wheel of Fortune. Back then, we had no idea what a good, serious political interviewer he would turn out to be - listening to him on Five Live Breakfast this morning, he gave Environment Minister Hilary Benn little quarter when Benn was attempting to evade the inevitable questions about Gordon Brown's leadership.

But alongside that, he retains a flair for humour that we can only dream of matching. Having trailed an item about the U.S. government's nationalisation of mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before reviewing the newspapers' front pages, he smoothly moved onto it by saying "let's talk about those mortgages without any more Freddie-ing about"...

Our Survey Said: We can't really count that as a pun, because we laughed.

They've done it again

Tottenham's shameful caving to ManYoo's pursuit of Dimitar Berbatov (it's not so much the sale that annoys us - after all, money talks - but the dropping of the formal complaint about ManYoo's blatantly illegal approaches) did, at least, have one positive outcome - enabling the Sun to produce its second greatest football headline ever:

Gimme Gimme Dimi (at Man U by midnight)

Our Survey Said: We laughed and laughed and laughed...