[lbo-talk] Choosing the President by public auction

[James Heartfield]

Reading that Barack Obama was forcing through his advantage by outspending 
Hilary Clinton two to one in Texas and Ohio, I am reminded of the Imperial 
Japanese interpretation of US elections, they choose their emperor by 
putting in bids in the manner of a public auction.

The three plenipotentiary members of the Japanese embassy: Shinmi Masaoki, 
Muragaki Norimasa, and Oguri Tadamasa (pictured: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:JapaneseEmbassy1860.jpg ) who travelled 
to America in 1860 also reported that the Senate looked like nothing so much 
as 'the Nihonbashi
Fish Market in Edo'.
America through Foreign Eyes: Reactions of the Delegates from Tokugawa 
Japan, 1860, by Yasuhide Kawashima, in the Journal of Social History, Vol. 
5, No. 4. (Summer, 1972), pp. 491-511.