You know, I was kind of hoping the Obama campaign would have refrained from something like this in light of Palin's comments. I agree with the assertion that McCain/Palin have seemed more interested in running a smear campaign than anything else, but this comment would have packed more punch if it had have been made WITHOUT a tit-for-tat retaliation. Palin's comments about the gloves coming off gave Obama a perfect chance to take the higher ground once and for all and let the Republicans play their silly little games - it should have been the final desperate nail in their coffin, but responding this way takes away from that a bit.
Monday, 6 October 2008
Sunday, 5 October 2008
what a winker
While I don't fully agree with the conclusions the author of this article reaches, he does bring up an important point - one that has particularly hit home during the past couple of months with the arrival of Sarah Palin onto the national political scene.
Like it or not, the US presidential campaign also relies heavily on the cult of personality politics as well as crucial issues, and it is important that candidates portray a particular image of themselves that appeals to various voter groups, of which the 'redneck vote' ('working class white voters' is one of the more popular umbrella terms but I think the author was being self-depreciating) is certainly a large part of it. Things such as 'family values' and being distanced from the 'political elitism' of Washington are important things and do influence votes in the US. I mean John McCain has gone to great lengths to portray himself as 'the maverick'. The choice of Sarah Palin as a running mate looks to have at least some basis in the fact that she typifies the kind of 'redneck appeal' that the author of the article is talking about - she is not some suit from DC who doesn't know what people on the ground are like, she is a small-town girl with supposedly small-town values and that is obviously meant to score her some points when she has been deliberately contrasting herself with Obama's comparatively 'city' upbringing.
If professionalism and suitability for the job were the most important things then we never would have had the cowboy we've had for a president over the last eight years, and I've seen many examples of people outlining how Bush's down-to-earth country attitudes made him more endearing and 'likable' and this obviously had a huge part in his election and reelection. Bill Clinton can be seen in a similar way as well.
Even though I feel that George Bush's 'folksy' persona was a factor in his original support, and played up in order to capitalise on that, I can still accept that a large part of it probably is simply who he is as a person.
Sarah Palin is like the assembly line manufactured version of that.
The choice of her is so bloody cynical that it hurts my face when I see her bigging up her little country ways as if they are some sort of legitimate evidence of an ability to run the most powerful and influential nation on the planet. Everything about her has been designed to appeal to peoples' hearts rather than their heads and yes, there is a fear that people will be swayed to vote on the kind of gimmick that worked for George Bush even though Palin's views and attitudes are (maybe moreso than Bush's) unpalatable and potentially catastrophic. Speaking from outside the US, it is scary to have something so important which will affect you in untold ways take place out of your hands and then watch as at least part of the decision rests on such trivial and cynical matters. It is frightening to watch the future fate of the world play out with gimmicks, ridiculous attack ads and winks.
While the conclusions in the article might be slightly alarmist, the rest of the world really does have something to fear from the choice of the most important people on the planet in even some part being reliant on things as intangible and superficial as this. What the US does affects all of us. Look at how much of the world has been shaken up by the Bush administration, look at how many people have lost their lives, their homes, their families and friends, because they happened to get caught up in the path of 'American interests' and then tell me that there is nothing worrying about the fact that a lot of people liked him, no matter how incompetent and dangerous he has seemed, because he reflects good family values and people would like to have a drink with him. Sarah Palin is, dare I say it, even more terrifying than George Bush, and it really worries me that in just a few months she could be within winking distance of the position of President. Thankfully not everyone is buying into her bullshit and support is teetering, however, I really see no reason at this stage why McCain/Palin should have ANY chance at all - they should have been knocked out of the way by now for running such a hateful and shameful campaign that has dragged democracy through the dirt despite all the psuedo-patriotic rhetoric of the Republican party.
Palin IS a fucking joke. Not as a person, not as a Republican, maybe even not as a governor. But as a VP pick? I keep expecting Ashton Kutcher to come out from around a corner somewhere. Please for the love of God, do not let McCain and Palin into the White House - to let people like this become the most important and influential figures in the world based on the campaign they've run would be an insult to democracy even greater than the ones we witnessed four and eight years ago.
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