I'm not allowed to vote - I'm a British citizen working in the US for a Finnish company - but if I were, I've been trying to work out who I'd vote for. A lot of the discussion seems to be about who is electable and it's come down to personalities rather than policies (which I don't understand in the slightest - I've always voted on policy regardless of electability).
But I thought I'd try and sum up my feelings of the democratic contenders, and who they feel like personality/appearance-wise against British politicians...
Yes, this is a meaningless comparison, but if everyone is getting obsessed with appearance and personality, then I'm trying to find a frame of reference to judge this race on. And this is my personal judgement:
John Kerry - John Major. He's the gray man of politics. He's completely inoffensive to everyone and seems to make a good leader to avoid causing rifts in the party.
Howard Dean - Charles Kennedy. He means well. He's got a well thought out position on everything, but he's inexperienced at playing national politics. He's good in a one-on-one setting, but poor in media settings.
John Edwards - Tony Blair. He speaks well to crowds, he's pleasing to look at, but there's no substance when you look deeper. He appears out of nowhere and leaps to national prominence. He's good on camera.
Wesley Clark - don't know - I wanted to say Paddy Ashdown but I'm not sure how good a match it is. They've both thought about their positions, their centrists with a strong military record, but on personality grounds I'm not sure.
Dennis Kucinich - John Redwood. I was going to stop with the big four, but this one was a little too obvious. Argumentative, pugnacious, totally out there policies, and both have been unfavourably compared to various alien species.
Anyone who want to do Bush, feel free, but I'm not sure a British politician with as little grasp of the english language would ever be elected. But I'm still missing a good Wesley Clark comparison, and Gephardt, Sharpton, and Moseley-Braun are possibilities.
And in the interests of disclosure, I'm generally a lib-dem voter back home but vote based on policy. I'm not sure Kerry actually holds any of the positions he espouses, so I'd have trouble voting for him, and I disagree with Edwards to vote with him (if either were democratic candidate, I'd vote third party), but any of the others (including many of those who've dropped out or have no chance) would get my vote (if it were possible).