Updates Thoughts on US Election (Part 3)

SO, the RNC is over and the race is on. And so we get an amazing look at a truly compelling and historical race.

1) I must say that McCain gave quite a good speech. If I had to grade him, I would give him probably a B+ (of course, Obama would still get an A). Yes, McCain is not quite the orator that Obama is. And his speech was largely devoid of specific policy issues. But, his speech made me like him more than I had. Unlike all the other speakers at the RNC, he did not spend much time attacking Obama. Instead, he took "the high road", and was mainly seeking to put partisan politics behind you. If someone ONLY watched his speech (and not the rest of the RNC), I could see why they might want to back McCain. And is it really fair to judge McCain by his backers? After all, some of the Dems key speakers could be equally as off-putting to right of centre moderates.

That said, I still had some grave concerns with his speech. First and foremost, as i,ve already said, is his lack of specific policies. It always seems that Repubs criticise the Democrats for their lack of specifics. But if you listen to McCain's speech, he just kept talking about stimulating the economy and reaching accross party lines, without really getting into specifics. Obamam on the other hand, is actually quite concrete in his speeches (at least int he more recent ones), and anyone who says otherwise hasn't actually listened to them.

The other thing is that he keeps talkin about his bloody record in Vietnam. Great. Who cares? It's like that's all they have going for them.

2) The republicans seeem to want to make this an election about character, and not about issues. Thats why, if you notice, the Republicans don't really talk much about concrete issues- half of their campaign has been how McCain is a Vietnam war hero, and the other half is how Obama is an inexperienced rat's ass. They are also trying to push the "change" idea. But, seriously.... how could McCain possibly be a greater agent for change than Obama? After all, McCain has had over 2 decades in Washington without much of a history of change.... so why is he waiting for now? The Republican argument once again falls to pieces.

3) The democrats continue to play it clean. Is this a mistake? Now don't get me wrong... I'm no fan of mudslinging. But the Republicans are never going to stop- and the sad news is that it works for them. It seems that the democrats give themselves a HUGE handicap in always playing it clean. Of course, at this point its simply too late to start playing dirty, and the dems would hurt themselves in doing so, simply because the republicans would just run ads about how they said they would "take the high road" and then renig on it. Such is the Republican way.

4) This was really evident in the election of 2004, but is just as evident now. The US is undergoing a cultural civil war. Sure, when its not election time, everyone can all get along, right? I don't know. It seems that the difference between Massachussets Liberals and Alabama Conservatives are far too great. While they can get along on non election years, the tension is going to keep returning at least every four years. The unfortunate consequence is this: such a fragmented America is not sustainable. Unless mainstream America can find, as Obama advocated, a middle ground- especially on social issues- America as a nation will have outgrown itself. This is a long topic for another entry, but such cultural fragmentation is one of many issues that will lead, in my view, to the significant decline, perhaps even collapse, of the American empire in our lifetimes!