SASLess, Having read all your comments, I wonder if your opinion would be different if the incumbent in the oval office was a Republican?
One thing I have picked up with American politics is that if 'your' team is in office they can do very little wrong - if the other team has the ball then even the way the president puts his socks on is wrong - it tends to be a fairly simplistic one eyed view. This has its strengths - election volunteers seem to be everywhere - in Australia - frankly we wouldn't volunteer - 'It just encourages the barstewards". Then again, when your man doesn't win, here we go down to the pub and and think that things would be pretty much the same anyway. In the US - how many presidents have you had assassinated or attempted assasinated? I suspect that this debate is along party lines.
I suspect in the UK as with Australia we tend to view all politicians with a large degree of skepticism - both sides of politics stuff things up, no side gets everything right.