On Form and Playing the Game.

Here in Britain the foreign news continues to be dominated by America’s President Tantrum behaving a little strangely, and it leads me to wonder whether our two nations are divided by more than a common language.

Over here, you see, we have a fundamental expectation regarding the matter of game playing: the loser is expected to shake his opponent’s hand and congratulate him. It’s seen as a sign of strength, maturity, honour and good grace, with the obvious corollary that a bad loser is demonstrating weakness, immaturity, dishonour and bad form.

It seems to me that the American presidential election is essentially a matter of game playing, with all the manoeuvring, razzmatazz, sleight of hand and dirty tricks that go with it. So now, with the game clearly over and the final whistle resounding in the ears of everyone who isn’t profoundly deaf, I’m wondering whether Americans see it differently. As a relatively disinterested observer, I would love to know purely for the sake of knowing.