Yesterday, in a moment of weakness, I headed down to the cinema and bought myself a ticket for 'Swing Vote' - a Kevin Costner movie that asks what would happen if an entire US election came down to the vote of one beer swilling, unemployed Hick in the middle of nowheresville.
Now of course what could have been glorious satire turned a little syrupy and obvious but the thought that politicians would say ANYTHING to get elected was pretty well represented.
Politicians follow the numbers. They read the polls and then pander to the millions. When the electorate is reduced to one man and the politicians to chasing his vote then that pandering becomes more obvious.
What we're seeing in this election is an attempt to find an issue that fills two criteria. It needs to be one on which people feel strongly and it needs to be one that has a simple "I disagree with him" resolution that can be reduced to a soundbite.
Right now everyone is hedging a little but the first salvo has been over offshore drilling. Both candidates were against it. But as the price of a gallon increased and media hysteria reached a pre-olympics cresendo both switched.
Now McCain wants to drill offshore. And Obama would drill offshore if it was part of a package that also allowed for more 'alt. energy' investment. The fact that at best offshore oil would provide no more than 2% of America's oil needs (bringing the cost at the pump down by 8c a gallon at most) matters not.
What we have here is a Republican being definitive
And a Democrat being nuanced.
Sounds a lot like Bush / Kerry right?
The rest of the campaign is just petty niggling.
McCain is still calling Obama 'a celebrity' as though it's a dirty word.
And Obama is still (just) resisting calling McCain 'an elderly racist'
McCain says Obama stands for higher taxes, more govt spendng and "therefore fewer jobs" - depsite evidence to the contrary.
Obama says "The hands that buily cars can build windmills" and attempts to show a New America full of skilled blue worker jobs that don't induce emphesima.
Meanwhile African American men are dropping like flies (Bernie Mac, Isaac Hayes) suggesting that perhaps, just perhaps, Karl Rove's secret syrum is close to being perfected.
1 comment:
Makes you wonder if you still have a democracy when nobody really knows what they're voting for. Bless. The world wants Obama which sounds like as good a reason as any to pick one vapid puppet over another.
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