Sheridan’s writings are so often so ludicrous. Obviously, from the tenor of yesterday’s rant, he is now coming to terms, psychologically, with an impending thumping for the Republican Party next Tuesday. So I guess we should just consider this stuff as a vent, the early phase of grief. Let’s have a cursory look at some of the sillier statements:

THIS has been the worst US presidential campaign I’ve ever seen. Vacuous, fatuous, misleading, dishonest, trivial, at times unhinged in its disconnect from reality.

Most people, however, believe it has been one of the best campaigns e.g. David Broder of the Washington Post.

This election marks the triumph of celebrity as the essential organising principle of US politics. There were presentiments of this in John F. Kennedy and even Ronald Reagan. But Bill Clinton was the critical transitional figure who morphed from a traditional politician into a pure soap opera celebrity, with all the baroque plot twists and personal dysfunction.

Ronald Reagan, the movie actor, regarded by Republicans as the greatest post-war President was less of a celebrity than Barack Obama?

Consider the arc of Obama’s presidential rise. He was introduced by Oprah Winfrey on her non-political talk show.

Since then he has also been endorsed by Colin Powell, most of America’s major newspapers, the Economist and much more. It is puerile to single out Oprah and the importance of Oprah is that she is extremely influential with white, middle-class women.

Obama’s two autobiographies played a big role in this election and they stand as beacons of the transformation of politics. It is typical to see Obama’s life described as an incredible odyssey that could only happen in America. There was nothing incredible about it. His mother was a peripatetic academic researcher. He was reared mostly by his grandparents. His grandmother was a bank vice-president and his grandfather a furniture store manager and then insurance salesman. They gave him a sturdily middle-class life.

Yes, but he is black Greg, and not many of them have grown up to be President. It’s a bit mean to dismiss his very real achievements. Sheridan might be the only person to hold this view, after all, even McCain did a TV ad congratulating Obama on being the first African-American to be the nominated by a major party to be its Presidential nominee.

But what a dismal and pathetic basis duelling memoirs are on which to vote.

A lot of people are keen to know the background of the candidates.

The selection of Palin as his running mate was a stroke of genius by McCain.

Most polling suggests that she has been a drag on McCain, there have been well-publicised tensions between Palin and the McCain camp and many Republicans believe that the selection of Palin led to serious doubts about McCain’s judgments.

But having made the bold gamble of Palin, the McCain campaign then lost its nerve and lost the battle over what Palin meant. They did this in those crucial weeks when they tried to shield Palin from the media. Since she’s been out in the media she has been a far superior campaigner to McCain himself.

This is the Palin camp view. The fact is she was ‘shielded’ from the media because she got tripped up on ‘gotcha’ questions like ‘which newspapers do you read’ and she has been dogged by a trail of petty scandals in Alaska.

This is American politics as American Idol. And that’s a giant step backwards.

Sorry, Greg. The republicans are stuffed, try and deal with it.