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August 25, 2008
The American presidential election is starting to warm up with Barack Obama selecting Senator Joe Biden as his running mate to attract the blue collar vote, overcome Obama being a foreign policy lightweight and enable the Obamacamp to take the argument to John McCain on national security policy. The Democrats have seen to be weak on national security and it is their greatest vulnerability.
The convention fortnight begins with the opinion polls making it a statistical dead heat between the two men. Obama's earlier higher ratings over McCain have evaporated and his his road to the White House is laid with Republican landmines.
Is that the end of the Clintons as power brokers as distinct from celebrity politicians? Do they still need their day in the sun? It sure looks like it since about 20% of Clinton's voters still say they're planning to vote for McCain! Obama has yet to find support from older white voters, especially when these voters are men and when they don't have a college education. Many live in the southern states and are not overly keen on a black President.
Presidential campaigns are usually about which side has launched the more effective attacks and bumper sticker slogans Who has the better healthcare or energy policy is largely irrelevant. What is relevant is the Rove dark side of lies, smears and innuendo that act to paint their Democratic opponents as alien to a majority of the American people; as someone too threatening, too different, too unAmerican to put in the White House.
On the other hand, the Republicans base in 2008 is small, their brand is damaged---Republican incompetence and failure have generated tremendous mistrust in the conservative foreign policy approach---- and McCain is definitely not a base mobilizing evangelical conservative. So they are left with attack and negativity at a time when the fundamentals -- the economy, Bush etc -- are against McCain.
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It's amazing how quickly Obamamania has subsided. It's looking increasingly like we're all in for at least another 4 years of cowboy politics from the land of the free. Can't hardly wait.