American politics

Lovely Bushism in Simon Hoggart's week in today's Guardian, where Bush is talking about China: '"America is trapped in this notion that we respect human life," he said, then caught himself on, as always, a beat too late: "Er, that's not a trap, that's a right."'

I've been wondering about these primaries, and how they work. So it's not the party members who choose the presidential candidates, it's the people? And how does it work - they just vote for whoever they like most, only one person, and the highest of each political party has won the primary?

But couldn't people be strategic, and vote en masse for the greatest plonker of the opposing party to make sure their own person gets in?

Come to think of it, that's what Democrats must have done last time, but somewhere the strategy broke down....