THIS week I am mostly feeling glad that I am not an American. As the race for the White House gathers pace, the much-vaunted American Dream edges ever closer to a nightmare. 

If the primaries go the way they are shaping up, the choice for the US electorate come November for the next leader of the free world will be between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. 

Rocks and hard places spring to mind. The Trump phenomenon is simply bizarre. A billionaire entrepreneur with no political judgment and who spouts bigotry and xenophobic shockers, versus a woman with an almost outrageous sense of entitlement to become the first female president of the USA. 

Barack Obama has certainly failed to live up to the expectations which carried him to the White House.

His two terms as president have been lacklustre on the whole; and he has done precious little to secure his place in history beyond the title of first black president. 

Mrs Clinton hopes to secure the first female president title; but there surely must be better and fresher candidates. 

Hillary Clinton is hardly an appealing prospect as the first female president. 

She has been mired in controversy many times during her political life - most recently her writing classified emails on her private server. 

Not the most exciting scandal, perhaps, but in these days of cyber crime and terrorism, it doesn't exactly inspire optimism for the security of the western world. 

Having said that, with the alternative being Trump in charge of the nuclear button, Hillary appears positively paranoid about security. 

What is also surprising about the two front runners is their respective ages. America has form for choosing old presidents - Ronald Reagan was just shy of 70 at his inauguration and nearly 78 when he left office. 

And that is the prospect facing the country once more. Hillary Clinton will be 69 years old come election day in Amercia, while Trump will already be 70, thus potentially, er, trumping Reagan. 

Trump's venerable age hardly gets a mention, though. To be fair, that's probably because people are too preoccupied with the jaw-dropping things he says/promises/threatens to be bothered about how old he is. 

How a billionaire member of America's elite (Trump is the son of a millionaire) has managed to appeal to millions of disaffected American voters with a visceral hated of the elite is one of the greatest mysteries of modern western politics - if the words Trump and politics can be used in the same sentence. 

Lucky us, here in Britain. While America has to make her choice this year, we've got the luxury of four more years before we go to the polls.

 And we're far more sensible than the Americans when it comes to choosing leaders. Past it and/or bonkers isn't the British way. 

So who will it be in 2020 - Jeremy Corbyn or Boris Johnson? Ah...