Not even a bridesmaid…

If I were to vote in the U.S., I’d have to do so by absentee ballot at my last U.S. address, which happens to be Texas.  For those of you not in the U.S., one doesn’t vote for the President of the United States, one votes for a slate of “electors” by state, based on the number of districts in the House of Represenatives plus two for the Senators.  In Texas, that means I vote for 38 people I never heard of, and know nothing about, who are pledged to vote for one or the other of the two candidates on the State ballot.

Given that the 38 state electors are going to vote for the guy I wouldn’t vote for anyway, rather than the guy I might reluctantly vote for as at least havig a saner domestic and economic policy, it doesn’t matter all that much… especially when I don’t live in the United States, and don’t have any plans to do so again.  And as it is, neither of those guys seem to have any interest in the world, outside of a few places nowhere near where I live anyway.  As Bloomberg’s Josh Barro put it:

Apparently “foreign policy” has come to mean “places in the Middle East and North Africa where we are or might be bombing people, plus some really stupid and demagogic discussion of trade with China.

By my count, “Latin America” was said twice… and only in an incorrect comparison to China.  there was an oblique mention of Peru (possibly… in reference to “other Pacific nations”) as well as mention of two favorite villains of Mr. Romney’s party: “Castro” and “Chavez”. But I suppose I have to give him credit for at least mentioning this quarter of the globe.

Mr. Obama mentioned “Europe, Asia, Africa…” as places where the U.S. had interests. As if this hemisphere didn’t exist, or as if the U.S. has no interests here. Ah….

Absolutely nothing said about… oh… the U.S. trade deficit with Mexico, the imposition of their “war on drugs” or the devastation caused by NAFTA agricultural policy, or migration issues, or…

It doesn’t really matter what the outcome of the election is down this way… the Gringos are going to keep coming, but  — as usual — have no idea why the locals resent them, and sometimes resist… if need be with horses and bayonets (or machetes… more the local style).