Americans do not like Britons telling them who to vote for
Have Russell Brand and Gordon Brown damaged Barack Obama’s chances? An alarming number of Americans have been saying it is possible - that’s how much their countrymen hate being told how to vote by the British.
Mr Brown didn’t exactly endorse Mr Obama, but he certainly suggested a preference in a magazine article. Brand, a comedian who is almost as unknown in the US as the British Prime Minister, was more blunt as he exhorted - “on behalf of the world” - the audience of the MTV Video Awards to vote Democrat. George Bush, he added, was a “retarded cowboy”. Americans will forgive almost anything from a Brit with good dental work, but the toothy comic’s not-very-original gags went down badly with his audience and with most of the US media.