…After two terms of the frighteningly simple George W. Bush, America had finally awoken to the the more liberal, diplomatic and progressive ways of a certain African-American. Right? Wrong.

America has fallen out of love with Obama so quickly it makes you wonder if it was ever more than lust in the first place. America lusted over the popular appeal of Obama in the rest of the world and his inspiring message of Hope and Change, one of the oldest seduction techniques in the book, merely sealed the deal. The rest of the world loved him for good reason, he marked a positive change in foreign policy direction and a desperately overdue lurch (somewhat) to the left domestically. But America? Well, like the playground legend that every girl craves but nobody really likes, they opted for the idea of him rather than his ideas.

This for me is intensely depressing. The strikingly probable threat of a Palin Presidency in 2012 makes it all the more unbearable to think about. With the Tea Party Movement gathering pace across the US, the truly intimidating right wing philosophy that is inextricably tied into the American Political discourse is rearing it’s ugly head once again.

An example of the frankly backwards, populist policy of the Republican party has been dominating the headlines just recently. Except the focus by the media is on how ‘out of touch’ and ‘politically inexperienced’ Mr. Obama is rather than how outrageous the Republicans are. Read the following statement by Republican Texas Senator, John Cornyn:

“To me it demonstrates that Washington, the White House, the Administration, the President himself seems to be disconnected from the mainstream of America. This is not about freedom of religion because we all respect the right of anyone to worship according to the dictates of their conscience, but I do think it’s unwise to build a mosque at the site where 3,000 Americans lost their lives as the result of a terrorist attack.”

He is of course referring to Obama’s recent decision to speak out about the proposal of a Mosque planned to be built near the site of Ground Zero. After remaining silent on the issue for a while, describing it as a local issue, Obama casually, if not inadvertently, endorsed the project by emphasising the importance of tolerance and stating that Islam did not attack the World Trade Centre - Al Qaeda did.

Spot on Mr. Obama. Why does the Texan Senator think it is ‘unwise’ to build a mosque at the site if he respects the right to worship? Unless, of course, he ignorantly believes that it was Islam that attacked America?

What’s more depressing is that the Republican is acutely aware of the Mid-Term Congress elections being just around the corner and he knows that his opinion isn’t the crazy charge of a far-right movement but the general feeling of mainstream ‘liberal’ America. Even President-Elect Palin was confident enough to speak out passionately against the proposals when she urged moderate Muslims to refudiate the plans.

Yes, she did say refudiate. No, it isn’t a real word. More spectacularly still, instead of retracting the comment as a mistake or fool-hearted moment she stuck by her creative use of the English language and self-aligned herself with William Shakespeare. Help, please.