The well past his use by date Laurie Oakes has outdone himself this time. After years of barely disguised ALP flag waving, he turns his attention to US politics.

The content of Oakes rant is borderline bizarre, peppered as it is with gems like this

WINGNUTS – people on the lunatic fringe of politics – are winning in America. A new poll just about puts it beyond doubt.

Released a few days ago, it shows that 40 per cent of Americans believe Barack Obama is a socialist, a third think he’s Muslim, three out of 10 fear he “wants to turn over the sovereignty of the US to a one-world government”, and 14 per cent agree that the President “may be the anti-Christ”. Phew!

Can a whole country go crazy? It makes you wonder.

Australians, thank goodness, are still pretty sane when it comes to politics. Plenty of us are unimpressed by Kevin Rudd or have less-than-flattering views of Tony Abbott, but we don’t go overboard.

Obama is a socialist. Maybe not in comparison to a goose stepping German circa WW II, but next to say a Reagan, he certainly is.

The whole Obama is a muslim thing, came from within his own party. Hillary supporters pushed that little concept. Much like throwing mud at the wall, some of it will stick, but lets call a spade a fucking shovel and look at where it came from. Not a “wingnut” as he so eloquently puts it (I wonder if he would use that term in a description of Asian politics?).

Any turning over of power to the UN is viewed with suspicion, especially by the fiercely independent Americans. Americans are more engaged in their political process than we Aussies are. You could say Aussies are apathetic in that regard. That, by the way, is just how Oaks likes it. People are far more likely to believe the rubbish he spews forth, because it’s right there in front of them. No need to look for themselves.

He claims 14% think Obama is the anti Christ. Oaks appears to have got this info from an online poll, known as they are for their dubiousness, conducted by Harris Interactive.

He then goes on to show us some hyperbole, American style.

In the US, as Congress passed President Obama’s health reform legislation and in the aftermath, it was a very different story.

Opponents of the Bill thundered about a “loss of freedom”. The Republican leader in the House of Representatives, John Boehner, proclaimed it “Armageddon”.

Is that like Rudd pontificating that climate change is “the great challenge of our time” and “the greatest moral issue facing the world” among other things? Yes politicians engage in hyperbole, because they are for the most part brainless automatons of the party line. Not only that though, they also parrot lazy journalists (much like Oakes), who in turn amplify and send to print any headline grabbing disaster story they can find while searching the ‘net.

In closing he expresses gratitude that we in Australia have not gone as far as those in the US when it comes to political activism, but makes mention of the ominous sounding “worrying signs.”

Those “worrying signs” would be that people are beginning to not listen to hacks like Oaks, and are beginning to awaken to the scandal that is modern politics. When the leviathan awakes Laurie, it will be mighty pissed off. It will probably want to know why it has been lied to by those charged with keeping it fully and properly informed.

Laurie Oakes’s long slide into complete irrelevance is nearing completion, the people are turning off…and getting angry.