Show him the Shark
In last week's presidential debate, there was no clear winner. Both candidates circled around answers without answering them. Both candidates missed opportunities for One-Two punches that would have put some life back in to this mess. I wish Obama had hit one out of the park that night - because he was focused on Americans, the people...the most important consideration of any president's job. But somehow the message wasn't said loudly or clearly enough to have an impact.
I think both McCain and Obama seemed extremely weary and tired. No doubt the serious financial crisis and the jockeying done by McCain in the last minutes before the debate added to the stress and anxiety of the whole situation. But a president has to handle this type of thing on a daily basis.
There's no doubt that McCain has shot himself in the foot with some of his 'maverick' decisions. The biggest one - being the 'Disasta from Alaska'. His campaign spends most of it's energy baby-sitting Sarah Palin (referred to on a CNN message post as) Caribou Barbie! (Perfect). They make sure she doesn't speak to anyone while microphones are present. They can't afford to let her speak her mind because you know, she's a redneck and might say something stupid like 'I don't know the answer to that.' The new, hip term for the ripples of energy generated by a smooth campaign move is called 'bounce'. People mistakenly thought her addition to the McCain ticket was generating interesting and positive 'bounce' on the whole. They were wrong. The bounce was merely a period of confusion and disbelief. The ball ended up bouncing out of the park as people saw the huge effort it takes to control the spin-out of Palin's private mess of a life.
I know that Republicans are so embarrassed by McCain and Palin that all they can do is feign huge enthusiasm to save face. Not even they see any benefit to her being on the ticket. McCain is older, a bit more tired and a bit more shopworn in the health department. They will pretend that it's OK for a person with little understanding of world politics and extremely questionable values to be a heartbeat away from where the buck stops. All this, just to save face. Please don't bother criticizing her - it's seen as badgering or disrespectful (not the other was around though). Scary.
My father, a lifelong Republican voted for Bill Clinton twice. Dad always said - He was the better man for the job. There were a lot of Republicans who did the same. What happened to doing the right thing? In the years since Clinton, I think Republicans have realised that their constituents actually might get wise and do this again - so they invigorated their grass-roots efforts and created a GOP brand that is stronger than candidates have to be. Like the new Burberry or Gucci - brands that have been elevated to tacky, horrendously overpriced schlock for the slapper set rather than the classy brands they started as. Now absolute nuts cases and complete morons can run for office and the Republicans will back them simply because they are Republicans. G Gordon Liddy and the fat fart, Rush Limbaugh love American ignorant Republicans who blindly follow every nasty, short-sighted word they broadcast. It's lucrative to make money off of people who are ignorant.
Here's my bottom line - aside from all the bizarre qualities of the McCain-Palin ticket (and there are many) and the Republican/Democratic divide - the most important thing to really understand is that McCain represents the past and Obama the future.
McCain thrives on the past, his strengths are in the past and his mind is in the past, his successes, and bravery and relevance - past past past. I hate to be picky - but the man has never sent an e-mail in his life. OK, there are a lot of older people who don't know how to e-mail, but I don't want my president to be one of them. I actually think that my president should know how to communicate with the 500 billion other people on this planet who communicate in the most common language in the universe - e-mail.
I don't have the confidence that McCain even mildly 'gets' the IT world or even slightly connects the dots in terms of how the world is universally connected. I bet Obama can explain the effect of this global crisis with relative detail all the way from Fannie Mae to the fact that you have to cut out that Starbucks coffee in the afternoon because you don't have the extra cash in your pocket. I don't think John McCain could explain the basics even on a peripheral level.
I know John McCain doesn't really get it when people have to dump their homes and risk bad credit ratings because they cannot afford to sell their homes - even though their house is worth less than 1/5th the original value, they don't have the cash to go to closing on the mortgage. He doesn't get it - but of course, he has many houses to go to if he loses one, no worries.
Obama does get it. He represents the future to me. He has looked at the big picture and can see how it all fits and how what we do in the big picture affects my bottom line. He doesn't live in a fantasy world of past war heros, wild west maverick decision-making and shock value. He lives in this world. He cares about how Americans will save enough for pensions, he cares about how Americans can afford school for our kids. He cares about heathcare and social security and local programs and organisations that get no press, but provide critical, social and economic support to millions of people every day.
Don't forget, he cares about us as a nation in the global sphere of influence. He cares about what other country's leaders and people think about us. He knows that the way America acts sends direct messages to terrorist groups, world leaders and trade partners alike. he knows that to be open-minded and fair means you have the opportunity for discussion. Living abroad for 8 years I have been really waiting for this from an American leader! I think the international world likes Obama already.
Now, Barack. I know it has been your campaign strategy to sit back and 'take the high road' and wait for your opponents to stick their foots in their own mouths - this has been a pretty good strategy up to now. But you have to move man!! Show them there's a bit of shark in you! Nail that McCain, challenge him on the future, make everyone associate him not just with the Bush past but with the old, tired, dusty past. Give him your A game. Turn on the juice!
Oh yeah, and at the next debate ask him why he didn't answer your e-mail
posted by Brussels Confidential @ 1:45 PM
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