You needed an election for that?

As most of you probably don't know, the Austrians had presidential elections on Sunday. The SPÖ candidate, Heinz Fischer, won by three and a half points.

This was totally the most pointless election I've ever seen in my life.

The Austrian president doesn't actually do anything. It's just a ceremonial position. He's actually sort of like the Queen of England—he can supposedly influence policy, but he never really does. Still, there was a four-month long campaign for the office, complete with arguments about who was giving away cookies illegally and who misused a Pink concert to promote herself (Fischer and Ferrero-Waldner, respectively). The Austrians seem to feel that it's necessary to have a special election just for this position, and then they get all wound up when the voter turnout is "only" 70,6%.

Sometimes I don't understand this country.