Perplexed by the American presidential elections, many of my colleagues from the university are asking me about my reactions to the protracted spectacle. After some twenty years there, I am considered an expert. Everyone has something to tell me, as if to justify their bewilderment. Over lunch in the Senior Common Room today, one of my colleagues told me about a short clip he had seen on television yesterday. A couple of old women in Texas are asked who they will vote for. “Both Gore and Bush mention God every once in a while,” says one of them quietly while the other one nods in agreement, “but only Bush ever mentions Jesus.” She shakes her fist and raises her voice: “That’s why I’ll vote for him!” Everyone around the table—there were five of us from the same department—bursts out laughing. I just raise my hands in despair.