AT the moment Europeans are looking across the Atlantic at the race to become the next president of the United States with a mix of bemusement and bewilderment.
Twelve months ago it was looking so different as political convention said it would be a battle royal between two presidential dynasties - Bush versus Clinton.
Unfortunately the party memberships of both the Democrats and Republicans went a bit rogue and now we have a fully fledged Barnum and Bailey circus going on with Donald Trump - the owner of the most famous comb over in history and Bernie Sanders - a grumpy old left winger causing the establishment indigestion.
Trump has already had his enormous ego dented by Iowan Republicans.
And Mr Sanders lost by the narrowest of margins, so narrow in fact it came down to the flipping of coins which fell heavily in favour of Mrs Clinton.
Sanders is very like the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, only not quite as left wing. Sanders is an outsider from a liberal state.
He wasn't even a Democrat until recently but he is channelling an anger from young Americans frustrated by the noose US big business has around Washington.
Sanders hasn't a single policy that he would ever get passed in the hugely unlikely event that, first of all, he wins the Democratic nomination and then the presidency.
That's right, Bernie Sanders has as much chance of becoming US President as Jamie Bryson has of becoming first minister.
He is, however, proving an irritant to the ultimate Washington insider - Hillary Clinton.
Mrs Clinton, somewhat tongue in cheek, haughtily dismisses the insider moniker by saying she is the first woman who is a serious contender for the US hot seat and by being the first woman she is making history.
Mrs Clinton should look closely at the record of the incumbent. In his first term the novelty of having the first black president wore off quickly.
But let's look at the CV of Mrs Clinton, wife of a governor and a two term president, a senator and secretary of state, Mrs Clinton has been an insider her whole political life.
On the plus side she is more qualified for the Oval Office than any other candidate Democrat or Republican still in the race.
Bernie Sanders will soon crash and burn when the Democratic primaries sweep the southern states on what the Americans call Super Tuesday.
So just has there is little doubt that Hillary Clinton will become the Democratic standard bearer for the November elections, equally she is no Bill Clinton.
In fact she is nearly a charisma-free zone and has more chill factor than the Arctic circle.
The Republican Party is in meltdown since the influence of the Tea Party and the far right and now the party of Lincoln, Eisenhower and Reagan has given up on middle America despite the loss of two successive presidential elections.
So estranged from mainstream American political opinion are the Republicans that they will almost certainly lose in November - no matter who they choose.
And just look at those choices - the megalomanic Donald Trump and far right wing nut Ted Cruz.
Look closely at them and it is Cruz not Trump who is the more frightening candidate. Trump is what he is - loud mouthed, self absorbed with the charismatic talk-ability, love/ hate appeal of Jerry Springer, Judge Judy and Frank Barone from the Everyone loves Raymond Show.
He is pitching to redneck America and boy do they love him. Fortunately for the rest of that's where his appeal ends notwithstanding support of that great forty watt bulb otherwise known as Sarah Palin.
Though US foreign policy under Trump would be interesting - repatriation of all illegal immigrants, a wall between the US and Mexico and a ban on Muslims travelling to the States.
The one Republican candidate who could possibly beat Mrs Clinton is Senator Marc Rubio. Son of Cuban immigrants,
Rubio is no liberal, his language is softer than Cruz, less clumsy than Trump and his youthful looks and humble Hispanic background is the kind of apple pie and Walton story so beloved by American voters.
Unlike Kennedy 50-plus years ago his Catholicism seems less of an issue.
As the race proceeds Republicans will either opt for the far right or a more centrist politician like Rubio but unless there is a political tsumami, most Americans will take comfort in having a Clinton back in the White House - as a two for one offer is a bargain.
