Three days after the Republican Convention a poll showed that Senator John McCain headed into the last and most important part of the US presidential campaign wiping away the advantage Senator Barack Obama enjoyed coming out of the Democratic conventions the week before. The USA Today-Gallup poll, released September 7, showed McCain with 50 percent and Obama with 46 percent. That suggests that McCain has wiped out the 7-point lead Obama posted after his convention.
By most measures the Democratic senator should be well ahead of his rival. The Republicans are facing their worst political circumstances in a generation, with a corrosive party brand, a faltering economy, a disastrous war, an unpopular president in the White House, and a record number of Americans believing that the country is on the wrong track. But their candidate remains locked in a tight race.
While Democrats are supposed to win more seats in state houses and senates and also expected to enlarge their majority in the federal Senate and House of Representatives, the greatest battle remains in convincing voters to overcome doubts about Senator Obama’s background and lack of experience.
In his acceptance speech in the Republican Convention McCain talked about his years as a prisoner in the Vietnam War and the torture he suffered: ‘Let there be no doubts, we are going to win this election. I don’t mind a good fight. For reasons known only to God, I have had quite a few tough ones in my life’. The greatest ovations that John McCain received during his speech came when he praised Sarah Palin, the 44-year old Alaska Governor and now his vice-presidential candidate.
Nearly 40 million Americans watched Mrs Palin’s speech, about the same number who viewed Mr. Obama’s acceptance address in Denver at the end of the Democratic Convention. A week before Governor Palin’s speech a few had heard about her, a poll the day after showed her more popular nationally than Barack Obama, her boss John McCain or Joe Bidden, Obama’s running mate, with a favourable rating of 58 per cent.
Is Europe’s candidate good for Europe?
The Democratic Convention was packed with European journalists; more then double the number that reported on the Republican one was present in Denver. Showing there is no doubt about which of both candidates is Europe’s favourite.
Reginald Dale of CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington DC) is quite clear on Europe’s choice. In an interview he said: ‘Europeans think that it will be all love and peace with the US as soon as President Obama is in office. They don’t realise that Obama is a power politician; he will ask Europe what their role will be to make better relations: are you ready to raise budgets for the military? Are you ready for a more important role in the war and the reconstruction of Afghanistan?’.
‘Europeans think that Obama will back an international approach of climate change. That’s true, but realise that he never backed the Kyoto protocol, the symbol for a united approach’, continued Mr. Dale. ‘Obama never excluded an attack of Iran. And he never said that he will leave more decisions to the United Nations. Of course, Obama, and McCain by the way, are more modest then Bush, but none American president will ever give up that America has the right to make its own and independent choice to do what’s the best for the US, with or without allies…’.
Reginald Dale: ‘Most disappointing for our friends in Europe is probably to hear that Barack Obama is anti free trade and anti-globalisation. He is against trade treaties with South-American countries; he wants to stop the North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada. American companies outplacing production units from the US to elsewhere in the world can expect financial repercussion according to Obama’s ideas. Don’t forget that Obama, more then McCain, has to prove that he is an all American candidate’.
A country with two faces
America is a huge country. Beyond the familiar and powerful cities lies a massive expanse of suburbs, plains and rural land. Here live the millions who fill the churches, serve the military, man the factories and till the land. Those people, especially in the South and the Midwest are the constituency of John McCain and Sarah Palin. For middle America it is not a joke to hunt moose, it is not kooky to believe in biblical truth and being a ‘hockey mum’ needs no explanation. Everyone knows someone who is fighting or has fought a war in recent times, talking about military is talking about their life. Sarah Palin, beauty queen, sports reporter and mom of five, may embarrass Europe but she inspires America. As does McCain, the authentic American hero.
The Democratic convention was a showcase for America’s ideals, appealing to voters to back the future rather than the past. The Republicans appealed to the heartland, pitting the people against the powerful. It has worked before!
