Yesterday another presidential debate hit the US. This was highly anticipated to be a ‘streetfight’, but those who would have enjoyed that was left disappointed. It was again a quite civilized affair. Obama came out on top again, but mainly because McCain didn’t win it. He desperately needed to. Obama looks to the future while McCain visits the past.
When Sarah Palin quoted a newspaper story saying that Barack Obama is ‘palling around with terrorists’, this was a desperate and poorly researched attack on the campaign that races ahead in the polls. McCain and Palin seems to be losing, and they know it. To shift emphasis in the media from the economic crisis that keeps on battering the US they have started what seems like a smear campaign. Smear campaigns have worked well before in US politics, but people who live in glass houses….and so on. The gloves are well and truly off!
Why didn’t Barack Obama choose Hillary Clinton as his running mate? Was he perhaps concerned that he himself was enough of a controversy for the Democratic campaign? That running for the White House with a woman might not calm the God fearing Americans who wouldn’t dream of voting for a black man with a foreign-sounding name unless he had a middle-aged white man standing next to him? Or was he simply afraid that Hillary Clinton might outshine him? Ode to Hillary
Sarah Palin has accused Barack Obama of cavorting not just with terrorist, but home grown terrorists. They are worst of all, because it is implied that anyone could become one. Just like McCain has one foot in the grave, it feels as if Palin believes Obama is just one step removed from actually being a home grown terrorist. This is just the latest installment in the ongoing, “Who loves America most, and best” argument. And therefore should pass as soon as someone forgets to wear the flag at the right occasion or wear it for the wrong occasion. Palin supporters may not be able to read.
It was just a month ago when John McCain introduced Sarah Palin to the world outside Alaska. Early polls suggested that she could lift the Republican campaign with her youth and femininity. But Palin has failed to perform. After her very successful speech at the Republican National convention, she has almost been sheltered from the media, giving very few interviews compared to her rival, Joe Biden. Failin’ Palin
Barack Obama is too young and too inexperienced to run our country, says John McCain. Yes, he is 25 years his senior, but John McCain is 72. The male life expectancy in the US is 75.15 according to the CIA World Factbook (2007). If this turns out to be true for John McCain, he will die during his first term, and we all know what will happen then. His chosen running mate, Sarah Palin, will become president. But Palin is 28 years younger than McCain, and even more inexperienced than Obama. Has John McCain really thought this through? McCain is Mr. Hypocrite.
Joe Biden has made a few errors lately. This can cost him dearly, as Obama has a way of replacing him. Biden’s errors are embarrassing for the Obama campaign, but few think they have an impact on opinion polls. Rumors are circulating in the US about this, and Obama’s campaign has yet to deny it. Is this because Barack Obama has finally admitted that choosing Biden as his running mate might have been the beginning of the end? Comeback Clinton!
So yesterday’s Presidential debate in Oxford, Mississippi, went ahead. McCain ended the suspense and broke his promise to skip the scheduled event if no deal was made on the financial rescue plan. As it happened, it was a fairly quiet and non-eventful event. Nothing new came out, there were no surprises and the tone was, for the most part, quite civilized between McCain and Obama. Was it worth watching? Debate, debate.
Anyone elected as leader of the free world should be able to concentrate on more than one thing at the time. So why has John McCain announced that he will suspend his campaign and return to Washington D.C to deal with the economy? Is this some desperate attempt to avoid Friday’s debate with Barack Obama (who is leading in the polls)? Is McCain trying to use his ‘I’m soon to be President-elect’ so I should be where the action is? Multitasking?
John McCain is 72 years old. If he gets elected, he will be the oldest man ever to be inaugurated as President of the United States. He has numerous diagnosed and treated cancers, but should he survive into a second term he will be pushing 80! Maybe that is why he is running. This is probably the only job he can apply for and hope to get at his advanced age.
Everybody knows that electing a young person does not guarantee that he or she will stay healthy throughout the term, but it is a hell of a lot more likely. ‘Experience’ is just a cover for age.