I haven't read any other replies yet, but I have been following this crash investigation (much the same way as AAL587) and so far the focus is on the control rigging for the elevator.
They were improperly rigged and did not give the pilots the ability to use full deflection of that control surface. There was a bit of an aft CG (Center of Gravity) but it was within the airplane's load limits. To see if this was something that would be considered 'easily noticable' the investigation took some very experienced pilots in the airplane and had them do a walk-around of the airplane which had been rigged (intentionally) the same way. I don't remember the numbers, but you could count on one hand the number of pilots that thought there was a problem with the way it was set up.
There have been a lot of issues (I think it's laughable that the average American with clothing, especially in winter, is 170 lbs) regarding weight of passengers. Even if overweight due to the passengers, overload percentage (in terms of pounds, how many % overweight it is) was small enough that if the rigging wasn't faulty, nothing would have happened.
Why'd a brit post this anyway as though he's making fun of Americans? Low. People died in this accident, and it's not their fault.