Archive for the ‘john mccain’ tag
US Election Hots Up
I have to admit to a more-than-passing interest in the US Elections each time they roll around.
I don’t get too heavily involved in the policy detail, and I don’t donate any money to the candidate promising to save Americans a few cents on their $4 a gallon (I wish!) gasoline.
But as a piece of pure theatre, there really is no equal. Our own party conferences, viewed alongside their US equivalents, have a whiff of the church hall meeting about them. Half the time, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a bake sale being conducted at the back during the breaks.
This time around, of course, the interest and the stakes are high in the US. They have the opportunity to elect the first black (actually mixed-race) man, or the first Female Vice-President (a gun-toting, global-warming-denier from Alaska). The good news is that at least one of them will make their way to the White House next January. But had Sarah Palin not joined the McCain ticket, I’m not sure that Americans would have been ready to elect either of them if the alternative had been two Conservative, middle-aged, white males.
Whataver, the inclusion of Palin makes this race all the more exciting: it will be touted as a race between a Black man and a Woman, naturally, but the choice isn’t that stark. Bush’s legacy has ensured that McCain had a fight on his hands from the start, and the emergence of Obama as a charismatic, eloquent smoothie from a mixed-race background would have been a black and white choice, literally.
Now American voters have to decide whether they want an elitist Black man as President, or a pensioner who can’t remember how many homes he has (7 apparently) with a woman seemingly brought in to shore up the vote amongst bitter Clinton supporters who might be tempted to switch.
From this side of the pond, America’s image is in need of some serious TLC after the Iraq debacle, and its general foreign policy ham-fistedness. The best thing it could show to the world is that it has the presence of mind to show it can change, and elect Barack Obama in November. Sorry Sarah – your turn next time perhaps?