Parallel

This writer from the Daily Mail, a British newpaper, tries to draw some parallels between 1931 and 2011. He talks about depression, unrest in Europe, and the dawning and sunset of empire. You don't have to wonder what he's thinking, either. Sadly, there seems little point in looking across the Atlantic for inspiration.

In 1932, President Herbert Hoover, beleaguered by rising unemployment and tumbling ratings, flailed and floundered towards election defeat.

Today, Barack Obama cuts a similarly impotent, indecisive and isolationist figure. The difference is that in 1932, one of the greatest statesmen of the century, the Democratic politician Franklin D. Roosevelt, was waiting in the wings.

Today, American voters looking for alternatives are confronted only with a bizarre gaggle of has-beens, inadequates and weirdos, otherwise known as the Republican presidential field. And to anybody who cares about the future of the Western world, the prospect of President Ron Paul or President Newt Gingrich is frankly spine-chilling.

Has-beens, inadequates and weirdos. Ha! That's got to sting.