5 posts tagged “republicans”

It is now a accepted fact that with three weeks to go before the election Senator John McCain needs to focus on a central message to wear down the formidable defenses of Obama in the election.  There are plenty of issues on which this can be done but Republican nominee has not zeroed on one of these.  The legitimate concern (even voiced by Hilary Clinton) of Obama’s experience is being sidetracked by discussions about race and other issues that whilst it alights the fringes of the political spectrum does nothing to engage the broad general public.

Each day the battle for attention of the American people will be harder for McCain to capture.  It will become progressively harder to gain what commentators call the ‘momentum.’  It is in America’s interest to have a close race.  Both sides need to have their opinions and views thoroughly and seriously analyzed.  It would be wrong at this time for the country to have some kind of comprehensive Republican rout.  Though satisfying for the Democrats, they should from other countries that large victories invariably set parties up for a greater fall, weakness at the head of a broad coalition and a more comprehensive laziness in government.  As the markets stabilize in the face of unprecedented action by central banks around the world, Americans must hope that this becomes a race again.

McCain had an uphill struggle at the debate last night.  He is fighting against all the dynamics that are against him at the moment.  There is unease at the financial crisis, there is disenchantment with the Republican party and there is a bout of soul-searching that is uncharacteristic for America and for Americans.

McCain punched hard and hard against an edifice that was far from as hardened as he was.  There was no circling of Obama on any issue even as McCain paced relentlessly up and down the stage trying to literally circle the man.  (Some may consider it to have been unfair for an aging Senator to be expected to perch on a bar stool for that long – this may well have been the reason for McCain otherwise inexplicable reason to pace up and down the floor so much).

Yet even though the Democrats are in poll position, there is no particular enthusiasm for the Democrats or for their response to the problems that the country is facing.  For all of Obama’s charismatic charm there is no wholesale adoption of the Democrats’ central economic platform. This correspondingly would suggest a weak mandate if they win office to change things around too much.  There is no optimism of any description – an environment in which the election to the supreme political office might well just prove a pyrrhic.

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.

Speaker of the House, Nanacy Pelosi, should have taken the opportunity of the vote yesterday to sound grand-eloquent and all embracing.  Instead she ceded both political and strategic ground by taking a side shot at the Administration, the Congressional Republicans and the Republican Party.  This was a mistake.

Patently, the Republicans were to blame for the failure of the vote.  This is both clear from the breakdown of command of their own party that defied their party lines as well as by the ideological reservation of those that did so.  The fact that two thirds of the Democratic Party voted for the bill should have cleared the way for the Democrats to label the Republicans as the ‘wreckers’ of the package. 

Instead of this clear cut clarity (that the voters like) Pelosi’s words were enough to muddy the waters.  Against charges leveled against the Congressional Republicans, the Republican Party through Rudolf Giuliani and others could point to these very public utterances that it was out of synchronization with at least the spirit of the bill.  The worst thing is that her words clearly had no affect i.e. they were not the main driver of the ‘nay’ vote.  But it was a pure gift of political capital to the Republicans who can now claim a) to have supported the survival package b) to have rejected unnecessary expense to the tax payer and c) to have attempted to act in a bipartisan manner.  The Republicans must be grateful to Nancy Pelosi.