Really? That’s going to be our choice for president of Europe, a choice between a war criminal and a Harry Potter lookalike (and also a war criminal)? Have we lost all selfrespect in Europe, do we really think the EU is so unimportant we get to choice between those two shits? Blair is hated all over Europe for his role in enabling the War on Iraq, while Balkenende is (fortunately for him) almost unknown outside Holland other than for his uncanny resemblance to the nerdy boy wizard, but equally loathed inside the country. If we had a choice, neither would be in the running.
But then we don’t, do we? In this greater and glorious post-Lisbon non-treaty Europe, we still don’t get a vote in who gets to run the EU, instead our betters will decide for us. The choice for Blair makes sense in that context, loved by his peers, hated by everybody else. The EU gets the leader it deserves and it’s telling that this election is big in the newspapers, where all the Serious People are explaining why Blair/Balkenende is the obvious choice, but not on the streets, where other than a few snorts of disgust I haven’t heard anybody talk about it at all. It’s our current political system in a nutshell, played in the media for the political classes, with no role for the rest of us other than in the voting rituals that happen every couple of years.