The Banana Republic of America

After another weekend of primary votes in the US, there's only one thing of which Westmonster can be certain — Iain Dale can set foot in the Oval Office, but he's constitutionally barred from being President. Phew!

The weekend's brewing drama takes place in the Republican nomination contest, where Mike Huckabee swept 2 of 3 contests this weekend, and may well have won the third, except that the Washington state GOP chair stopped counting votes after only 87% had been tallied and declared John McCain the winner, even though he was ahead by only 1.8%.

Westmonster's at least 87% sure that it's traditional in a democracy to count 100% of the votes before declaring the winner. Huckabee's campaign is pretty sure that's what's supposed to happen too. But with the party trying to close ranks around McCain, it sure looks like some people over there are willing to massage the results to keep McCain's momentum flowing.