So…the candidate who didn’t strangle his Peruvian mistress won?

As the shift of political power is officially announced here in America, it is always a pleasure to look back over the electoral process and admire the integrity and dignity by which candidates conducted themselves. While the political situation in Australia is by no means something to brag about, there is something amazing about being able to sit through twelve campaign advertisements with absolutely no mention of anything even resembling an ‘issue’. The campaigns here took mudslinging to an entirely new level, with entire campaigns based upon character flaws, public scandals, or the relative degree of corruption compared to your average politician.

Some ‘highlights’ of this midterm election included:

• The senator who was accused of attempting to strangle his Peruvian mistress.
• Appeared on television to publicly apologize for having a mistress…but professed that he didn’t attempt to strangle her
• The senator accused of spending tax dollars investigating the masturbation habits of elderly men
• The senator who was accused of spending taxpayer dollars on phone sex which later turned out to be an apparent ‘misdial’

These ‘issue’ based campaigns ran along side the regular political controversies and scandals, including the now infamous Foley incident, and Haggard’s forced exit from his church.

As if having to sit through the myriad of ridiculous campaign advertisements wasn’t enough to deter most Americans from voting…guess what…you can’t purchase alcohol before 6pm on election day!

Considering the current state of politics…can you think of a day when you need a drink more?