Stupid Politician tricks: Uniquely American?

[Enigma]

Looking for some insight from our over-seas readers around here....

Here in the US, there is a bizarre thing that happens to people running for President. They all feel the need to portray themselves as a good-old0boy, hunting, man's man. Kerry did it before the last election with his joke of a "hunting trip" ..(Because as you know, when you go hunting, you bring the press corps...) Bush has his dopey "brush clearing" and "ranch work" which, again, the press corps joins in on, and now this from Mitt Romney:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/04/....ap/index.html

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- In boasting about his lifelong experience as a hunter, Mitt Romney may have shot himself in the foot.
The Republican presidential contender has told audiences on several occasions, most recently this week in gun-savvy -- and early voting -- New Hampshire, that he has been a longtime hunter. But it turns out he has been on only two hunting trips.
Critics said it was the latest example of a White House aspirant willing to say anything to reach the Oval Office.

"I purchased a gun when I was a young man. I've been a hunter pretty much all my life," he told a man sporting a National Rifle Association cap.
Yet the former Massachusetts governor's hunting experience came during two trips at the bookends of his 60 years: as a 15-year-old, when he hunted rabbits with his cousins on a ranch in Idaho, and last year, when he shot quail on a fenced game preserve in Georgia.

So, I was curious if this happens in the elections of other countries, too. Does Chirac go rock climbing? Does Blair take the press on a fishing trip? Or is just here in America that politicians seem to believe they have to have some fantasy make believe macho hobby in order to be elected? :hmm: