3 posts tagged “bush”
McCain was behind in the polls being trampled consistently by Obama until late August. He chose Palin which electrified not ‘the base’ as the pundits are now saying but everyone. It had been a long drawn out campaign everyone was well known and genuinely this woman plucked from obscurity piqued the interest of everyone outside stalwart Democrats.
Her failure to make good on that freshness by revealing too limited a knowledge of international affairs, looking like she lacked credibility to carry the office should McCain pass away in office, embarking on a shopping spree of $150,000 and in the latter days plotting her own career beyond 2008 election. All of this certainly failed to make good the boost in the polls that she had initially given McCain. But failing to convert on promise and ‘losing it’ for the Presidential nominee are two very different things.
Palin was McCain’s choice. All the evidence shows that he had not done enough homework. But he was always going to have a tough time to differentiate himself from an unpopular President Bush. But he was always going to have a tough time in the present financial crisis. One of his least significant problems was that he had a running mate who was a bit too passionate, a bit too wet behind the ears and a bit too provincial for the majority of America to accept.
Obama’s team retaliated to Palin’s weekend attack (linking Obama to Ayers see below) with a counter-offensive about McCain’s involvement with a savings and loans fraudster from the 1980s. Though seemingly relevant, this piece is somewhat academic in its material and message. Its effect will not reverberate with the people of America – so it is interesting to see why Obama would calculate that this small advantage is worth pressing.
It is clear that Obama is willing to get his hands dirty in this election but why now? My assumption was that, if he was even capable of this (of which I was far from certain), then he would have waited for this riposte until much later in the game. This belief was based on the assumption that Obama has far more to lose than to gain from the elections turning nasty. It is these particular tactics that the Republicans can turn back on the Democrats hurting their majority as well as their ability to govern in a becoming manner after the election, should they win.
The danger for the Democrats with their national lead at this late stage is not so much lethargy, or the ‘swift boat’ tactics that many fervently believe brought down Kerry in ’04, is that they are shown to lack that connection or that common touch with the American people. It is this particular ability mastered so well from Reagan to Palin (and including both Bush 41 as well as McCain at their best) that the suave, northern and sophisticated Democrats don’t have, don’t get and don’t see the point of getting.
The Vice-Presidential debate held this evening was a much more hard-hitting affair than the Presidential one. Palin came in with fire burning in her belly and a passion that was barely disguised. Biden took a great deal more time to warm up but by the foreign policy section he was ablaze. There was much of substance in this continuous one hour and a half. There were plenty of disagreements and plenty of scrapes.
Palin had much more to prove than Biden, and she held up well. Her fresh face and almost constant smile was accompanied with studious, well researched and well delivered responses. On both sides there were plenty of ducked questions (perhaps more by Palin). On both sides there were shots at the legislative records of each of the Presidential nominees (perhaps more by Palin on the inevitable discrepancies between Obama and Biden’s record).
Biden promised McCain-Palin ticket represented more of Bush of the administration. He also pointed to the healthcare deficit of McCain’s plans. Palin promised to change the way Washington worked flaunting McCain credentials as a maverick. She also pointed to the greed and the corruption that had got the American people in financial crisis. This debate did not, and was realistically going to be, a changer of the game.
