[tambourine-man]

Funny, I was going to say something similar - that in the UK, a politician doing the whole a-whoopin'-an'-a-hollerin' thing would basically be committing political suicide - with the exception of the late Screaming Lord Sutch (God bless you Lord Sutch).

Thing is, Dean may well have committed political suicide with his seemingly endless, rah-rah list of states and the cowboy cattle drive scream... but not because he came across as an arse... oh no, no. The speculation following his 'speech' was basically: "the more conservative elements of the Dem's will consider him too angry, too radical"! As if to say, "there's people out there who like this sort of dross - but not enough of them"! Nothing at all to do with the fact that he came across as a complete git, regardless of your political persuasion. Having said all that - it was only one caucus (and a disparate one at that).

I know where you're coming from malv, I personally cringed when I saw Dean's oafish rant - but I suspect there were a lot of Americans who cringed aswell (I must say, that my maximum cringe-bearing capacity was hit when he did the unintelligable scream at the end).

As for good ole' Boris... he occupies that mixed-sentiment niche in British society that is usually labelled 'National Treasure'. A curious cubbyhole, said to be occupied by 'amiable chaps', though more generally regarded as a dustbin for intellectual, yet harmless buffons (ie: Patrick Moore).

Boris Johnson's majority is transparent (translucent at best). He's popular and has a great deal of political sycophants simply because the public warm to him in a way that if any other Tory tried, they'd be labelled as a smarm. Sadly for Boris, his public popularity is based on his toff-ish absurdity - and that won't wash if the dire day ever came when his electability became an issue.