Following a campaign by a Republican state politician, Utah is now to have its own official ‘state gun’, the Browning M1911 automatic pistol, designed by Utah-born gunmaker John Browning.

But although America’s nutters are out there, right enough, the threat of former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, the Alaskan moose-hunter so air-headed she must be tethered to stop her floating away, has receded out of sight.

Her hick followers still love her, but, the Lord be thanked, the White House now seems safe from her.

Americans who inhabit the real world - which means the majority - recoil from the Republicans’ excesses as much as we do from the extreme Right in Britain.

They look with gratitude upon a President who, whatever his limitations, never speaks or acts less than rationally.

But it is dismaying to see this brilliant man’s accomplishments fall so far short of the world’s hopes.

Obama secured a deeply flawed health reform package (which was passed in 2010 and promised to provide health care for more than 30million people who cannot afford insurance), and presided over the bank bail-out which averted global financial disaster. He has made some speeches marvellously articulating his nation’s hopes and fears.

But he flunks the other big ones; he shows no appetite to lead the West from the front. He refuses to respond to the need to fight and fight again to convince Americans how much they need to change to meet the epic economic challenge from Asia.

His country’s educational system is in worse shape than ours. Schools are woefully underfunded; American children’s maths skills were recently rated 25th in a ranking of 34 OECD countries.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1365992/Barack-Obama-missing-action-Afghanistan-falters-Middle-East-burns.html#ixzz1GlmygUrV