American Notes - from Reporter 123, Sept 2007

Written by Phil Heinlein, Sept 2007

We've got a vote and we ought to use it

Most readers of this column, if they're Americans, will be residents of what someone has called "Expatria", a virtual state made up of US citizens living abroad. State Department estimates put their number at something over 4 million (with some 101,000 living in France); independent guesstimates range up to 6 million.

These people have a vote, and as Samantha Timmerman of the local chapter of Democrats Abroad has stressed in these pages, "We've got a vote and we ought to use it in our own interest and those of our fellow citizens, as we understand it." Many of the Americans we come into contact with at the Reporter tell us that they do vote.

That's fine � but does their vote really count, or, to be precise, does it get counted? Both after the presidentials of 2000 and 2004 there were reports of expat votes lost or disqualified on various grounds. Looking ahead to 2008, it could be that we will be promised a more reliable system based on electronic technology. Mebbe, pardner ... but some of the news at the mid-terms wasn't encouraging. Of intending voters, one in five did not get his or her vote registered. Hi-tech voting devices had serious problems in several states, notably in Florida (nooo!), Indiana, New Jersey and Ohio. Local officials put these down either to glitches in the hardware or to mistakes by poll workers. In some cases voters just couldn't negotiate the system.

For information on voting go to:
Overseas vote foundation: www.ovf-rava.org
Democrats Abroad: www.votefromabroad.org
Republicans Abroad: www.republicansabroad.com/states.html

Missioners: no comment on Mitt

I was on a bus in Nice the other day when a couple of those young Mormon missioners got on. One looked quite cheerful, the other was solemn and very silent. I asked the Elders (as they're officially known) what they thought of Mitt Romney's bid for the Republican presidential nomination. The cheerful guy reminded me that on the mission LDS representatives are denied access to all media, a two-year aggravation of their lifelong abstention from liquor, tobacco, tea and coffee.

A pity. I'd have enjoyed a bit of talk with these two and to hear their take on Romney, former governor of Massachusetts and himself a one-time Mormon missioner in France around Paris and Bordeaux. What I've read and seen of him hasn't been encouraging. He's a notorious flip-flopper � on issues like abortion and gay marriage � and he's upset both Mormons and those outside his church by his reluctance to come out plainly in support of LDS dogma. He appeared in one grilling not to believe (as good Mormons do) that Jesus' Second Coming would take place in Missouri and not in Jerusalem.

But the oddest thing about Governor Romney is his almost Sean Hannity-like obsessive distaste for France. Maybe this goes back to his time as a missioner here when as a driver he nearly died in a car crash (a police officer wrote il est mort in his passport) and a woman passenger was killed. Whenever possible he offers a snide comment on this country and its people. Grotesquely, he told an ABC interviewer that the French get married on seven-year contracts (Tiens!). One of his campaign slogans, directed at Mrs Clinton, is simply: Hillary = France! How would he get on with Sarko?

Who's the guy with the five o'clock shadow?

As in all things "fair and balanced" I've said for years that the two American Presidents I find especially interesting were Democrat Harry S. Truman (that S didn't stand for anything, by the way) and Republican Richard M. Nixon (M for Milhous). Of course, they each had a dark side to their character. Both, for example, were gut anti-Semites. Truman would never allow a Jew into his home; Nixon's tapes were spattered with evidence of his prejudice, even Henry Kissinger wasn't spared.

For most people, though, Truman has always worn a white hat, while Nixon has been cast as a villain. His reputation was helped by Peter Morgan's play Frost/Nixon which, according to the New York Times critic, highlighted the man's "humanity and pathos". Reader Michael Grantham and his wife were quick to attend the London performance. Explains Mr Grantham, "It brought back memories of our meeting with the former President in Hong Kong." (See picture.) The Granthams were in a hotel lobby when Richard Nixon emerged from the lift. Michael Grantham called out a greeting and snapped a salute. A few seconds later he was into a twenty-minute conversation with the former US leader. "He was absolutely charming, relaxed, open and very impressive. After a brief talk about China we turned to UK politics and Mrs Thatcher. I am not sure if they had met but he was obviously an admirer. He did criticise her role in the departure of Nigel Lawson which he thought was an error of judgement. He then said, 'When you have been in the highest office for some time with great power it can affect your judgement and you can make bad decisions.' This I took as a part explanation of his downfall."

In brief:

- Currently the richest 1% of Americans earn about $1.35 trillion a year � greater than the total national incomes of France, Italy and Canada.

- So you can claim (as Hugh Hefner did in some recent interviews) to trace your descent back to a passenger on the Mayflower? According to historian Nathan Philbrick 35 million of today's Americans have a connection to a single passenger, John Howley. At one point, records show, he fell overboard and was nearly drowned.

- In some places fatties in America can be made to feel uncomfortable. Like Bibendum, the Michelin man. The French company's US licensees have requested that the famous roly-poly figure be slimmed down. His traditional shape, they say, is "inappropriate".