Saturday Night Live

The role of politics, of our politicians of our Presidents in a democracy is broadly twofold.  The first is to represent us, the People.  This includes articulating our dreams and hopes as well as our fears and trepidations.  The second role is to preside over peaceful and beneficial dialogue that advances the interests of our society.  The executive control that most automatically associate with politicians and Presidents is really only a bye-product of these two roles.  In this way it can be seen that a mandate to action relies on properly exercised authority and persuasion.

Pat Buchanan was one of the people who stated on CNN that McCain was wrong to make himself party to the jokes of Saturday Night Live as he saw this as a debasement of politics in general and of a would-be President.    This is a hard balancing act to make in democracy: Being one of the people, but just maintain the right distance from them in order to exercise the right authority in times of need. McCain has made much of his folksiness in comparison to Obama’s loftiness.  But Obama is in no way as lofty as Kerry or even Gore so this attack looks like it will fall short of the target.  As a result McCain might have ceded political credibility for folksy charm.  On paper this does not look like a good trade.