Tin-pot Republic...
President HopeandChangeYouCanBelieveIn was recently compared to Robert Mugabe, the dictator of Zimbabwe who has transformed what was once considered a paradise (by African standards) into a desert with his policies by the governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford. Now, I don't know as much about Zimbabwe as I perhaps should, but what I do know is frightening enough; a dictator, utilizing a racially-charged and divisive kind of populism, managed to drive all the productive human beings (i.e. the white ones) out of the country, thus ruining the economy, and sending the nation into such turmoil that the banks issue notes with twenty-three zeros (or something) on them to keep pace with runaway inflation, people are starving to death (when they aren't being 'disappeared' by the government), and social unrest is about to reach a boiling point (coming soon to a UN subsistence-level food line near you).

Now, perhaps Governor Sanford is exaggerating just a bit, but I take his meaning. The signs are all there; Messianic figure beloved by the lazy, halt, poor and stupid -- Check! Government apparatus thoroughly permeated by like-minded, or at least politically-compliant morons -- Check! Legions of great, unwashed, pig-ignorant racists demanding reparations? Check! Economy so poor that even the worst excesses of the regime will be forgiven? -- Check! No free press worth the appellation to inform and warn the populace about what's coming? -- Check!

Yep. Close enough. Perhaps the Governor was correct. Australia is looking pretty good to me right about now...