The XX Factor: Slate women blog about politics, etc...

Super Dienstag From Berlin

To return to a previous point: Meghan, at least you're in North America! To watch this particular primary race from Europe has been a distinctly odd experience. On the one hand, it's fantasically frustrating, almost homesick-making, to be so far away when American politics (finally!) have produced an election as gripping as this one. On the other hand, it's nice to be so popular: Suddenly, Americans are the most envied nationality in the room. After all, we have real politics! We have unpredictable voters! We have black candidates, female candidates, war heroes, evangelicals, Mormons! Everyone wants to know who will win, and nobody believes us when we say we have absolutely no idea. If you hold an American passport, you must have inside information.

Above all, it's the unexpectedness, the defiance of the opinion polls that Europeans seem to admire, almost to the point of jealousy. Which makes me wonder whether the traditional criticism of U.S. electoral coverage—too much horse race, not enough substance—isn't somewhat off. People love following a horse race, as long as it's a real horse race, and not a jumped-up and essentially boring contest between two equally flawed candidates (i.e., 2004). People love watching candidates actually trying hard to win.

Clearly, a primary like this one, staged every four years, would do a lot more for "democracy promotion" and American public diplomacy than a thousand earmarks' worth of Congressional funding. You want to make democracy appealing to the Russians or the Iranians? Remind them that a good election is a lot of fun! I'm beginning to wonder if it isn't really that simple.