Lexington: GOP a ship of fools

The Republican Party has "little to say about today’s pressing problems, such as global warming and the debacle in Iraq, and expends too much of its energy on xenophobia, homophobia and opposing stem-cell research." "Mrs Palin was invented as a national political force by Beltway journalists from the Weekly Standard and the National Review who met her when they were on luxury cruises around Alaska, and then noisily championed her cause."

That, briefly, is the indictment of the GOP by the left-wing Lexington columnist at The Economist. Republicans have no brain power, Lexington says. They depend for ideas on the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

Makes you wonder why a respectable British publication (up until now) would hire such a biased writer for a key column about the United States.