Too much red for my liking
I have a really early start tomorrow and yet I’m still glued to the television, watching the results come in. It’s compelling. I could sit here all night watching the coverage. Apart from the tension – will we wake up to McCain and the moose-hunter? – there are all these fascinating glimpses of a culture that is probably as alien to Europe’s as China’s is, except that we don’t notice because they look the same and speak English, and we think the whole of America is like Sex and the City instead of just Manhattan.
Did I hear right? I think they’ve announced that McCain has taken 81 per cent of the white vote in South Carolina. It looks like the state’s racist past is also its present. A Republican pollster has emerged from a ‘fantastic party’ to tell us that Sarah Palin is the most abused political figure in American history – my God, they even criticised her hair and her shoes and talked about the father of her daughter’s child, when she oversees $11 million-dollar budgets. A little old woman has said that she didn’t vote for ‘that other man’ because he has no experience, there’s lots of things wrong about him, and he was – get this – ‘planted here because of all those terrorists he mixed with.’
On second thoughts, maybe it’s not such an alien culture after all, because when I put it like that, I can see that lots of people here would feel right at home with that kind of backwoods thinking.
Please, let it be Obama. America needs its first black president like Malta needs its divorce law, and for the same reasons: a symbolic break between the past and the present, a turning-point, a message that there is no going back to what was before.
Oh, and a tall, elegant man to look at on the world stage never goes amiss.
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I think it will be an early night and Obama will win. My wife voted early last week here in Colorado and by yesterday almost half the voters in this state had already voted. There’s a huge desire to turn over a new leaf in places that are not staunchly conservative. Overall, if voter turnout is high it can only mean a win for Obama. But remember its electoral college votes that count eventually.
Go to France 24. They’ve got excellent coverage. I think you can rest easy, Daphne. It’ll be an Obama win. But a word of caution: We Europeans will be in for a surprise come January. Any US President will seek US interest first and foremost. At least though, we can start the fight in earnest in Afghanistan.
Daphne, It’s 03.25 AM. I think you are a bit too alarmist at the moment.
McCain will win S. Carolina – no surprise there and it has nothing to do with racism but the demographics and age of the voters, but will probably lose N. Carolina, Ohio, and Florida (3 battleground states, Obama only needs to win one of these 3 states). Virginia is a toss up.
McCain has lost Iowa and New Mexico. So it’s already all over for McCain.
I do not agree with you on McCain, he’s a respectable man, but he had a very lousy campaign, and does not come well on TV. He is not an orator either, but a respectable politician overall, and his career vouches for that. His choice for VP was thought to be strategic (energize the base) but completely off-putting (he scared away all the independents and centrists). Palin and McCain are complete opposites of each other, but he needed her to attract the base of the party who disliked him. He did not realize that he was pushing away the independents (who were his voters during the primaries).
Obama, who is going to have his very first job in his life as president of the USA (his resume is wafer thin) managed to become president by beating two strong opponents: Hilary, who took the whole race for granted and thought to become the Democratic candidate by mid January, and hence did not raise any money for subsequent months, and McCain, who did not campaign in traditional GOP states like N. Carolina, Missouri, Indiana, Georgia, and Florida since he took them for granted. He started to campaign there very late in the day.
Obama was extremely lucky as well. The financial meltdown raised his popularity by 10 points without doing anything, and not saying a single word.
Having said that, Obama ran a formidable campaign and has proved to be the most disciplined campaigner ever. He is still unknown to most Americans. He has no experience in anything, and his programme lacks details. But after Bush, people do not want to see another GOP president in the WHite House for some time.
[Daphne – I agree with you that John McCain comes across as a decent man. His farewell was very dignified and exactly what it should be. But it’s my view that as electors become more sophisticated, they use electoral campaigns as a way of assessing the judgement and abilities of the options presented to them, and NOT their policies or even their track record. The smart reasoning is that if a man, or woman, can’t even manage their campaign, if they make serious mistakes in that campaign, and it’s just a campaign, if they exhibit poor judgement while campaigning, then they’re going to make mistakes and exhibit poor judgement while running the country. So the most efficient candidate, the one who isn’t making mistakes or exhibiting poor judgement, has a head start before we’ve even begun to talk about policy. We have seen this repeatedly over the last few elections on our own small scale here in Malta. I also think people wanted to break with the past – and by that, I don’t mean the Republican recent past. Suddenly, the thought of having a black president attained enormous historic significance, but I would think that so did the thought of what it would mean to vote him out, to have him lose.]
We have not seen the last of Palin yet. SHe has already declared that she will run for President in 2012
It is Obama…. and Mc Cain has just made the most gracious concession speech
McCain has just delivered a wonderful concession speech. America remains a strong and great country.
Obama’s story would not have been possible in any other country in the world, least of all in Europe, which remains extremely classist. Although most Europenas are envious of the US, are prompt to express hate towards the US, deep down aspire to the US.
Obama is a self made man. He never knew his father (except for a few months when he was 10 years old), was abandoned by his mother when she moved to Indonesia and was raised by his white grandmother in Hawaii.
Obama is the least known candidate, was the most mysterious candidate, was the least scrutinized candidate by the media and yet is the most liked candidate ever.
[Daphne – Europe is not in the least bit classist, and while I agree with you in your admiration of America, I must point out that America did not invent democracy, either in its ancient classical definition or in its parliamentary expression and post-Enlightenment form. Which current European prime minister or executive president comes from a privileged background? Gordon Brown certainly doesn’t, nor Sarkozy, and Berlusconi was a billionaire when elected but comes from a very ordinary background and made his own money.]
Well, racists had better get used to the idea that OBAMA won or rather, McCain conceded the election :) I’m really happy about it and let’s hope that he brings about the change which the US and the world desperately need. I will have to say, though, that I will be sorry to see Ms. Bordonaro go, if indeed that happens.
Apart from a little nap here and there, I watched it all
and have just seen America’s first black President
giving the most amazing and moving speech. John McCain’s
was very generousd in defeat and seemed a much nicer man
this evening. Thank God the moose hunter didn’t say a
word.
History was made tonight and I’m glad I stayed up and
hope my work won’t suffer too much today.
Dont slag John McCain. He is a decent man and fought a decent campaign. Somehow I am sorry for him, but Obama is the man of the moment.He comes across at the right time. Its time the USA is ruled by the people, not Big Business, as epitomised by the Cowboy.
McCain would have tried to do some changes, but Obama, I hope, will make a clean sweep.
[Daphne – Somehow I am sorry for him too. Sarah Palin helped sink his ship.]
Daphne. Pls take some time to watch this short feature: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=eLfrFMe4bZ8&feature=related/ it looks like AN and Imperium Europa have already set up their branches in the US!
[Daphne – Thanks. The video was posted on this blog a few weeks ago. It got a lot of attention. I think it’s very good.]
I too was wonderfully touched by John McCain’s concession speech – bold, humble, conciliatory and most of all – downright decent – we need more people like him in this world. As to the Southern argument, yes Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana and Arkansas cannot really stomach a black man for President. The comforting result is that North Carolina and Virginia saw the light and now even have two senators in each state together with a Congressional delegation majority which is Democrat.
Wooah wooah, let’s all calm down with the effusive praise. Clean sweep of what, pray tell me? Of domestic policy? Healthcare reform, the American Nightmare, to coin a phrase, was barely discussed during the election campaign. As for foreign policy, expect a gradual reduction of troop numbers in Iraq, and, if Obama is to keep his promise, an increase in Afghanistan. What he will do with Pakistan is a mystery. How he will deal with Iran is also mystery. How he will respond to Israeli calls to attack Iran, or indeed how US-Israeli relations will develop over the next four years, is perhaps the greatest question at the moment.
At the very least, though, we’re living in interesting times. Decadent, perhaps, but interesting.
I do hope he chooses someone sensible as Secretary of State, and Defense Secretary. (Please, no Hillary Clinton, and no Colin Powell). And I hope Condoleezza Rice will disappear into obscurity, never to be heard again. Someone who is not a rabid Russophobe would be a good start. Difficult to find one, though. We haven’t seen much sense coming out of the US political establishment in the last eight years.
H. P Baxxter: Effusive praise? The celebration is about a political breakthrough, not about what comes next. Obama’s election means race doesn’t matter – which is why you can skip over that bit and immediately mull over, well, what comes next. That’s not a bad thing, is it?
Corinne: But I’m a chess player. I worry about the next move. Pawn to P3Xawar.
Funny we didn’t have any messages from Al Qaeda in the run-up to the election. Which would have benefitted the Republican camp. They are one shrewd political player. Damn, they’re smarter than all of Bush’s cabinet put together.