God bless America. While British politics seems to have mutated into a tedious and never-ending game of Budge the Immovable Object (ie Gordon Brown), the US Presidential election has been quite enthralling.

It was already interesting enough but the dramatic entrance of the bizarre and terrifying Sarah Palin, John McCain’s running mate on the Republican ticket, has taken it to another level.

While I’ve already heard enough of her views to know that George Bush seems like a safe pair of hands in comparison, I know even more about her quaint hobby of moose-shooting and her daughter’s self-confessed "redneck" boyfriend.

These are the details the commentators prefer to dwell on, along with her cloying description of herself as a “hockey mom”, which is surely enough to repel any sensible voter.

Rather worryingly, this is the probably most flattering way she’s referred to herself, having proudly flaunted her high school nickname “Sarah Barracuda” and made strangely proud mention of being a “pitbull with lipstick”. Maybe it’s just self-effacement done badly but to most of us it just plain alarming.

In her favour, Palin has managed to upset 80s soft rock band Heart, by borrowing one of their songs (Barracuda, get it?) at a Republican party rally. While Heart are apparently happy to be associated with soul-draining power ballads, they don’t want anything to do with the Republicans.

McCain himself has been rather overshadowed by his media-friendly running mate, as has Democrat Presidential candidate Barack Obama. While Obama does seem to possess a refreshing intelligence, his bland slogan - Change We Can Believe In - is possibly the worst in political history, even trumping our own Conservative party’s Are You Thinking What We’re Thinking? (to which the electorate answered with a clear "no").

Amid all this dubious entertainment, the US election campaign has made me realise how lucky we are not to have anything as appalling as a “Christian right” in this country.

These are the worst kind of hectoring, intolerant, bigots who give religious people a bad name. And often win US elections, as we saw in 2004.

Christianity generally remains spiritual rather than ideological in this country and has kept a dignified distance from politics, which is how it should be.

While the Americans may have a legion of demented TV evangelists, we have the calming voice of Aled Jones. And I know which I’d prefer, even if it makes our politics more boring.