Has it come to this?
Obama, McCain both win. (Yawn.)We have to remember that this is not bad given that four years ago, it was George Bush and John Kerry. Both Obama and McCain are the sort of leaders who have put integrity, leadership and vision on the table and are staking their claim to the most powerful job in the world on their ability to put things right. It may even be an election devoid of most of the crap and spin we have seen for years - given that the vending of crap and spin seems to have been one victim of the primaries.
Duller questions still await. Like "can a win in Ohio prolong Clinton's demise?" Like "will Huckabee join in an unholy alliance with talk radio to place the simmering disloyalty of conservatism above the greater good?" Like, yawn, the VP candidate selection. But what does this all mean? Is this really an urban v. urban race. It appears also to be a center-right v. center-left or even left race. These are both new things to US politics. Interestingly, it may also be a fight between relative radicals, one with substance and one with something that looks like a couple of slogans: hope and change. A product of the 1960's against an echo of that decade.
And the Votemaster points out that the actual election may not be such an even fight as the process to date might imply:
In a development that should make Republicans nervous, Obama got more votes (619,000) in Virginia than all the Republican candidates combined (485,000). In fact, the combined Democratic vote in Virginia was more than double the combined Republican vote. And this in a state that hasn't voted Democratic in a Presidential election since 1964 when Lyndon Johnson wiped Barry Goldwater off the map. If the Democratic enthusiasm is running so high in places like Virginia, what's going to happen in the general election in true swing states like Missouri, Iowa, New Mexico, and Colorado?People are coming out for Obama. I'm not really sure why but, despite that, I was very tempted to nick one of his lawn signs, holdovers from the primary, that I saw down in New York over the weekend. An opportunity to grab a bit of what might be going on.
Comments
Sean Liddle - February 13, 2008 9:57 AM
Yeah. I'm thinking yawn too, but a good yawn, in the sense that either and even Hillary for that matter would at least for the first term in office, be likely to spend more time building up the US as something more than an international police service and more of what they claim in all of their pro-liberty propaganda. Sad to see my man Edwards gave up so fast though..
Maybe for once, the US networks will in lieu of anything exciting to yack on about, start to talk about our election as the fill in battle between good and evil.
Ben (The Tiger) - February 13, 2008 10:18 AM
I don't know whether Obama will be as big a phenomenon as he now seems.
You seem immune, Alan, as does my mother (who will vote Republican for the first time, this fall, for John McCain), as do a number of other people I know.
But I did wait in line for four hours in the freezing cold with a crowd of ten thousand to see the man speak, and the yoots seem engaged in a way I have never seen. And this is a very bad year to be a Republican.
So we'll see.
Alan - February 13, 2008 10:22 AM
I fear the vacuity of Facebook has become a political movement.
Sean Liddle - February 13, 2008 10:24 AM
For the record, life long Liberal that I am and foreign Deomcrat supporter, I kinda like John McCain more than Barak Obama, and I feel all sorts of guilt saying so.
Ben (The Tiger) - February 13, 2008 10:29 AM
See? See? This totally unrepresentative sample is backing up my own personal totally unrepresentative samples. :p
Alan - February 13, 2008 2:29 PM
"election tone"!!
Anyway, this is gold, from a link on Ben's blog today leading to a letter from McCain to Obama from two years ago:<blockquote class="smalltext">I would like to apologize to you for assuming that your private assurances to me regarding your desire to cooperate in our efforts to negotiate bipartisan lobbying reform legislation were sincere. When you approached me and insisted that despite your leadership’s preference to use the issue to gain a political advantage in the 2006 elections, you were personally committed to achieving a result that would reflect credit on the entire Senate and offer the country a better example of political leadership, I concluded your professed concern for the institution and the public interest was genuine and admirable. Thank you for disabusing me of such notions with your letter to me dated February 2, 2006, which explained your decision to withdraw from our bipartisan discussions. I’m embarrassed to admit that after all these years in politics I failed to interpret your previous assurances as typical rhetorical gloss routinely used in politics to make self-interested partisan posturing appear more noble. Again, sorry for the confusion, but please be assured I won’t make the same mistake again. </blockquote>That is some of the best nasty ass writing I have ever read. I am looking forward to a debate lasting many months if it can be based on gems like this.
Sean Liddle - February 13, 2008 3:17 PM
That is sweet retort writing if I ever saw such.
I am soooo sliding into the McCain camp bit by bit.
Mike C - February 13, 2008 5:56 PM
He would have had my vote in 2000, that's for sure. I had read "Faith of My Fathers" at the time and was very impressed by his story; not just the prison camp experiences, but also his family history of service in the Navy. I might just flip through it again.