Something Else with John Elsegood….not the 7 o’clock news

Australian journalists always have had a desire to lecture the Americans and recently at the races I was reading a story about the great US race by a Canberra journalist, Robert Macklin, which reminded me of the old adage: never let the facts spoil a good story.

According to Macklin most of the GOP (Grand Old Party) contenders would be disasters as president. Whereas he is almost certainly right about Governor Rick Perry of Texas being out of his depth (he is like a deer in the spotlight in debates with a shoe size higher than his IQ), some of his other comments make trainer Paul Jordan and this scribe, look like moderates. (Jordan is heavily in to international politics and he is still gloating over the British Election when I backed Gordon Brown to remain as PM and he backed David Cameron).

The worst Macklin can come up with on Mitt Romney is to say that 'he is a Mormon who once drove to Canada on a family holiday with his dog strapped to the roof of the car.'

Golly, gosh how cruel can you get? (About the dog I mean, not being a Mormon! Incidentally, how come Mormon Mitt is the faithful guy with only one wife while his major rival, Newt Gingrich, has had three wives and as many religions?)

Actually what Mitt did for his mutt, back in 1983, was to build a rooftop carrier complete with windshield for the dog to make the journey more comfortable for the then family Irish Setter.

Macklin's 'scoop' after a mere 28 years have passed reminds me of The War of Jenkins Ear in colonial America where there was an eight year interval between incident and war.

In April 1731 a Spanish coast guard sloop intercepted a British merchant ship and the Spaniards boarded her. Heated words ensued between Captain Robert Jenkins and his Spanish counterpart, Juan de Leon Fandino, ended up slicing off one of Jenkins ears.

Seven years later, in March 1738, Jenkins reported the incident to a committee of the House of Commons and the British Government saw that 'outrage' as a reason to declare war - over a year later in October 1739.

Even in the era of sailing ships and snail mail eight years delay seems a trifle long and cynical.

Macklin's 28 year wait, in an era of instant communications, to finally decide Romney is unsuitable to be president is simply in a class of its own.

Perhaps Macklin has lived in the rarified atmosphere of the 'bush capital' of Canberra too long and forgotten that real dogs in much of Australia, and the US, enjoy riding in the back of utes and open trucks –and they don't have seat belts either! (Hold the front page).

Still our fearless Aussie crusader has received strong American support from one animal rights group in the US.

When Romney was successfully using his business acumen to save the Winter Olympics of 2002 from financial disaster a group called PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) protested at his move to have a rodeo at the Olympics and again when he went quail hunting too (No, not Dan Quayle, the bird variety, stupid – only Dick Cheney shoots humans on a hunt).

Of course like Macklin, they are most unhappy, with the fact that Romney's dog liked fresh air and they exercised a civic duty of care in reporting this incident.

The price of freedom must be eternal vigilance. They deserve our thanks.

Romney simply can't become president after these breathtaking revelations from Down Under –someone needs to tip off Rick Perry as this 'breaking news' is on a par with the Texan Governor's riveting revelations of the lawn mowing firm hiring illegal immigrants to cut Mitt's lawn.

Then again Rick is probably too busy trying to remember about other things to cut.