6 posts tagged “palin”
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.
Suits and the hair-dos have been making headlines since it was revealed that GOP has spent $150,000 on the appearance of Sarah Palin since she was selected as vice-Presidential candidate. But what does this or Biden’s botox tell us about the American political system? The answer is that appearance is an incredibly important factor in winning elections. Whilst many might bemoan this lack of ‘substance’ we must never forget that politics has always been a theater. Franklin Delano Roosevelt pretended to be able to walk in order to seem more capable at running the country.
Obama or Plain’s fresh face were (and still are) an attraction for many bored with the same old aged Washington junkies. We should not complain about how all of the actors have to be immaculately turned out for 24/7 news society. Obsession with the exterior image is a reflection of what we seek not of what an individual is. Visual messaging is important and can be an election loser. Let’s just hope that the internal content matches up to this perfectly maintained exterior.
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.
There is a small amount of time left before the general elections, but the last month still has two presidential debates as well as all of the twists and turns that this extraordinary financial crisis can muster. This weekend has seen activity from Palin that has already driven from the news the Republicans withdrawal from keeping Michigan in ‘play’. In this race the Republicans, although underdogs, are still not ‘dead dogs’ as the Democrats could have achieved by now.
Palin’s highlighting of Obama’s connections to Mr Ayers (and by implication the Weather Underground) will not, by itself, win any more voters to the Republican cause. In order to roll back Obama’s lead, the McCain/Palin ticket needs to organize a concerted attack that weaves together a pattern that will make sense in terms of a narrative ark to the American people. Otherwise these attacks will just appear as they do hitherto – shots in the dark.
Obama needs to maintain a steady hand in face of these pinpricks. At a certain point, if these attacks do morph into a strategy he won’t be able to brush them off as mere slurs and smears. Headlines are how politicians rise and fall. Headlines if they persist become the news.
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.
McCain needs to pull a trick out of the bag to win the election which is to be held in just less than five weeks. He is trailing in the polls again, after the resurgence of support and interest surrounding the selection of his running mate Sarah Palin and various other beneficial tactical moves fade. The Iowa Electronic Markets see the Republican’s chance of winning being approximately one third.
The crisis in the economy has not catapulted Obama into the lead, but it has insulated the Democratic candidate from the scrutiny that he might have received. It is now well and truly his election to lose. McCain is just the kind of opponent to fear in such an environment. He is unpredictable and a self-conscious maverick. McCain loves a fight and knows that Obama pretends not to fight. As a result expect to see an escalation of attacks, scare tactics and even the kitchen sink thrown in Obama’s way. Notwithstanding, this activity Obama must maintain his political stall in the way he set it out at the beginning of his campaign, for he must know that any misstep or re-alignment might jeopardize a tantalizingly close prize of the White House. In any ordinary election this would now be a closed Obama affair, but this election is proving to be slightly out of the ordinary and there is one thing that we know from experience that McCain will not do: Give up hope.
