Election?

it's nice that you really have concern about talking politics because that's a very broad discussion if you'll really tackle.

As I'm not in the US (or the UK), we've had Gordon Brown, Cameron and Clegg in quite of few of the net news papers the last days. They've been a bit overshadowed by ash clouds of course, not the best time to check for anything else than news on Eyjafjallajökull. They all use the same picture so I'm not sure if they have one person to do political news from abroad and spread it in all the news papers. I'm pretty sure they have at least two do to the royal news from abroad, as they use different pictures of princess Madeleine and Jonas ;-)

I am aware that you have an important election coming up but I must confess that I don't know much about it. While I strongly disagree with most of what the first responder posted, he did get one thing right...when it comes to politics, all of our news organizations have "analysts" who spend all of their time going over everything a political candidate said or did with a fine toothed comb. They discuss his/her record, beliefs, past history and campaign promises...among other things. Since this makes up the majority of our political news coverage, it's not likely that the election campaigns of another country will receive very much attention here unless there's something particularly scandalous or worrisome involved.

I never see any coverage of the UK unless it has something to do with America. And not that I have anything against any other country, but I like it that way. I like that news--at least the news I read and watch--minds its own business and sticks to what affects my country. Every ounce of news to be found here is opinionated these days. If they aired UK news, they would have a panel of "experts" sitting around and talking about another country's business that they probably know little about. I'm sure a lot of Americans do pay attention to international affairs, if only to stay in the know. And I'm sure a lot of networks and papers cover things like that on occasion. On the flip side, I'm not sure why America's news is so widespread around the globe. I've met people Thailand and Australia and some places I've never heard of commenting on American matters -- usually negatively and usually with a feigned knowlege of what's going on. It's one of my pet peeves, but to each their own. If folks want to stick their nose in America's business and claim to know what America needs better than an American, so be it. I make an effort not to do the same.

as far as i can tell some are vaguely aware there's going to be an election here, a lot aren't and some, like the poster above, are only interested in national events.

Our PBS (Public Broadcast Service) News Hour is covering a little of it. I also watch the American version of BBC so I am seeing some of it but they seem more thrilled with idea that you had a debate than what that debate might be about. They did give us some high lights. I have written the BBC a couple of times and have not gotten any response but I think they would do really well if they ran more of their english programing on our air waves. Truley, our news has become nothing but dribble for the last 15 years. We used to have regulation that kept big interest out of our news but that has all changed. Complete deregulation has turned our news to tabloid trash, we get about four stories a day on thirty three stations with sixty six talking heads that have never acomplished anything but standing in front of a camara.