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The politics of change energises US voters
KEEBLE McFARLANE
Saturday, February 09, 2008
For professional politicians, candidates, political junkies or plain old party hacks, the campaign for the highest political office in the United States has turned into the greatest show many have seen in decades.
Normally in such a year, the only people who would be excited at this stage in the process would be the political bingo-callers on the various television channels along with the self-appointed kingmakers in the newspapers and the vast service industry that supports politics of all stripes in the United States. The primary season is when the parties winnow through the baskets of hopefuls offering themselves up and settle on one or two to be put before the party conventions later on.
But this year has seen all the usual markers fall by the wayside as the putative contenders for the Democrats and Republicans sprint from the starting blocks, stumble, catch themselves up, elbow past the supposed front-runners and favourites in a race as exciting as any at the Preakness handicaps, the Kentucky Derby or the Olympic track.
This week was the high point so far, with almost half the states voting in primaries or caucuses to select delegates for the national conventions. Since the process began right after New Year's in the snows of Iowa and New Hampshire, the bandwagon rolled on through Michigan, Virginia, Nevada, South Carolina and Florida before hitting what the US press, with its penchant for hyperbole, dubbed "Super Tuesday". Millions of voters in places as different as Massachusetts and Alabama, Georgia and California turned out at polling stations and meeting places to caucus and vote.
The whole system is a bewildering arithmetical and logistical labyrinth, understandable only to those who actually run the thing and a few other hardy souls who have dedicated much of their life to understanding it. But never mind - like the bumble bee which, according to the rules of physics, shouldn't be able to fly but still does - somehow it works.
Last year the Republican senator from Arizona, John McCain, who was viciously side-swiped by the Bush forces in the 2000 election, was mired in the mud from lack of funds and not much of an organisation. But this week he left all the others sniffing the burnt rubber his now turbo-charged machine left in his wake after vacuuming votes from New York to California. Most of the early hopefuls had by now given up, leaving only McCain, the one-time governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, and Mitt Romney, the wealthy business figure and former governor of Massachusetts.
On Thursday, Romney, who never demonstrated the fire in the gut needed for this kind of race, looked at the entrails of his sorry campaign and gave up. So, barring some really unforseen event, McCain surely will end up as the choice for the Republicans, with the only question being whom he'll choose as his running mate.
On the Democratic side, however, it's still an open game, with the newcomer, Barack Obama, making life very interesting indeed for the establishment candidate, Hillary Clinton. She is, of course, the wife of a former president, who still has a vast reservoir of goodwill among Americans, just as he has a smaller but more pungent pool of vitriol from the holier-than-thou ultra-conservatives who can't bear the thought that he even exists.
A lot of that vitriol was directed at Hillary from the day she moved into the White House with Bill, and was the source of the nastiness they spewed at every available opportunity. Much as the German soldiers who aimed mustard gas at the allied forces in the trenches of Flanders only to have the wind blow it right back at them, several of those who harassed the Clintons were burned by the blowback from their own sulphurous emanations.
Not leaving anything to chance, Ms Clinton launched her bid for the White House a year ago, filling her campaign purse with contributions from the usual sources, and nailing down endorsements from many corners. When Obama put his entry coin in the slot, many couldn't see how he could even put a dent in the Clinton machine. Parsing their positions wont yield a lot of differences. What does make the difference though, is the tone. Obama came into the campaign not weighed down by old baggage, and presents his message in a fresh new way, reminiscent of the optimistic tone of Michael Manley's first campaign. Although not an unknown figure in the public mind, he has brought a fresh perspective and message to an electorate which had become jaded by the same old, same old.
The pundits have had a field day comparing him to another fresh face from half a century ago, who was able to attract both the old jaded types and the idealistic young who had not yet begun paying much attention to politics. That figure was, of course, John Kennedy, whose policies fit quite comfortably in the mainstream, but whose reputation grew exponentially more rosy the day he was cut down by an assassin's bullet. All most people remember is the style of him and his photogenic wife, Jackie, not the meagre substance of his less than three years in office.
Never mind - the politician and the people feed off each other, and Obama has injected passion, verve, élan, and vibrancy into the campaign. In a place like South Carolina, he was able to bring out people who had never voted before because they had felt there wasn't much point in doing so. The voter turnout all over the place exceeded all prognostications, often by huge margins. His message of change resonates so strikingly that the other candidates are forced to react with their own version of change.
Blacks and whites, young and old, middle class and poor have responded in a manner rarely seen in recent memory. He has been, in effect, the yeast which has contributed a delightful consistency to the political loaf in contrast to the ordinary, heavy, chewy, sourdough politics.
In some ways, he doesn't even have to win the race for the White House - he has already achieved remarkable success in shaking some new life into the old republic and giving its people a glimpse of a more civil manner of conducting their collective dialogue. That alone is worth the record millions he has collected to fuel his campaign.
keeble.mack@sympatico.ca
KEEBLE McFARLANE
Saturday, February 09, 2008
For professional politicians, candidates, political junkies or plain old party hacks, the campaign for the highest political office in the United States has turned into the greatest show many have seen in decades.
Normally in such a year, the only people who would be excited at this stage in the process would be the political bingo-callers on the various television channels along with the self-appointed kingmakers in the newspapers and the vast service industry that supports politics of all stripes in the United States. The primary season is when the parties winnow through the baskets of hopefuls offering themselves up and settle on one or two to be put before the party conventions later on.
But this year has seen all the usual markers fall by the wayside as the putative contenders for the Democrats and Republicans sprint from the starting blocks, stumble, catch themselves up, elbow past the supposed front-runners and favourites in a race as exciting as any at the Preakness handicaps, the Kentucky Derby or the Olympic track.
This week was the high point so far, with almost half the states voting in primaries or caucuses to select delegates for the national conventions. Since the process began right after New Year's in the snows of Iowa and New Hampshire, the bandwagon rolled on through Michigan, Virginia, Nevada, South Carolina and Florida before hitting what the US press, with its penchant for hyperbole, dubbed "Super Tuesday". Millions of voters in places as different as Massachusetts and Alabama, Georgia and California turned out at polling stations and meeting places to caucus and vote.
The whole system is a bewildering arithmetical and logistical labyrinth, understandable only to those who actually run the thing and a few other hardy souls who have dedicated much of their life to understanding it. But never mind - like the bumble bee which, according to the rules of physics, shouldn't be able to fly but still does - somehow it works.
Last year the Republican senator from Arizona, John McCain, who was viciously side-swiped by the Bush forces in the 2000 election, was mired in the mud from lack of funds and not much of an organisation. But this week he left all the others sniffing the burnt rubber his now turbo-charged machine left in his wake after vacuuming votes from New York to California. Most of the early hopefuls had by now given up, leaving only McCain, the one-time governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, and Mitt Romney, the wealthy business figure and former governor of Massachusetts.
On Thursday, Romney, who never demonstrated the fire in the gut needed for this kind of race, looked at the entrails of his sorry campaign and gave up. So, barring some really unforseen event, McCain surely will end up as the choice for the Republicans, with the only question being whom he'll choose as his running mate.
On the Democratic side, however, it's still an open game, with the newcomer, Barack Obama, making life very interesting indeed for the establishment candidate, Hillary Clinton. She is, of course, the wife of a former president, who still has a vast reservoir of goodwill among Americans, just as he has a smaller but more pungent pool of vitriol from the holier-than-thou ultra-conservatives who can't bear the thought that he even exists.
A lot of that vitriol was directed at Hillary from the day she moved into the White House with Bill, and was the source of the nastiness they spewed at every available opportunity. Much as the German soldiers who aimed mustard gas at the allied forces in the trenches of Flanders only to have the wind blow it right back at them, several of those who harassed the Clintons were burned by the blowback from their own sulphurous emanations.
Not leaving anything to chance, Ms Clinton launched her bid for the White House a year ago, filling her campaign purse with contributions from the usual sources, and nailing down endorsements from many corners. When Obama put his entry coin in the slot, many couldn't see how he could even put a dent in the Clinton machine. Parsing their positions wont yield a lot of differences. What does make the difference though, is the tone. Obama came into the campaign not weighed down by old baggage, and presents his message in a fresh new way, reminiscent of the optimistic tone of Michael Manley's first campaign. Although not an unknown figure in the public mind, he has brought a fresh perspective and message to an electorate which had become jaded by the same old, same old.
The pundits have had a field day comparing him to another fresh face from half a century ago, who was able to attract both the old jaded types and the idealistic young who had not yet begun paying much attention to politics. That figure was, of course, John Kennedy, whose policies fit quite comfortably in the mainstream, but whose reputation grew exponentially more rosy the day he was cut down by an assassin's bullet. All most people remember is the style of him and his photogenic wife, Jackie, not the meagre substance of his less than three years in office.
Never mind - the politician and the people feed off each other, and Obama has injected passion, verve, élan, and vibrancy into the campaign. In a place like South Carolina, he was able to bring out people who had never voted before because they had felt there wasn't much point in doing so. The voter turnout all over the place exceeded all prognostications, often by huge margins. His message of change resonates so strikingly that the other candidates are forced to react with their own version of change.
Blacks and whites, young and old, middle class and poor have responded in a manner rarely seen in recent memory. He has been, in effect, the yeast which has contributed a delightful consistency to the political loaf in contrast to the ordinary, heavy, chewy, sourdough politics.
In some ways, he doesn't even have to win the race for the White House - he has already achieved remarkable success in shaking some new life into the old republic and giving its people a glimpse of a more civil manner of conducting their collective dialogue. That alone is worth the record millions he has collected to fuel his campaign.
keeble.mack@sympatico.ca