Quite a lot of people have asked me to write about Sarah Palin. It sounds like troopergate and Palin in general are generating a lot of interest and excitement in the UK.
But not so here, or at least as far as I can tell. It has, of course, been reported, but it's not a story which is running and running. I don't know why this is. I wondered if it was because the Obama campaign is on a winning streak, feeling positive and like it is winning the arguments, and therefore doesn't feel the need to dwell on negative stories about the other side in order to gain political advantage.
On the other hand, Pierre thinks it's such a minor case of abuse of power, especially compared to what other Alaskan politicians get up to (not to mention Clinton when he was in power) that it is in no one's interest to keep bringing it up.
Nevertheless, Palin doesn't need troopergate to turn people against her. My sense is that a lot of swing voters could see McCain as president but are totally turned off by Palin's extreme views - and this seems to get to the heart of McCain's problem... or even the main problem of democratic politics in general. He is the candidate for a party some of whose views he has long shared (principally, its fiscal ideology), but he is uncomfortable with others, especially the social conservatism of many Republicans. Likewise, social conservatives are suspicious of him, believing (rightly, I think) that he does not share their views on key issues such as abortion.
This may be what has led him to behave really rather respectably in recent days - criticising people at his rallies who shouted abuse about Obama, and conducting similar restraint to the Democrats over Obama's connection with Ayers et al as the Democrats have done over troopergate.
But this restraint, and apparently chivalrous behaviour, is politics too - the CNN response trackers during the debates consistently showed the lowest approval when the candidates attacked each another, and the highest when they set out a vision for how they would restore America to greatness. Both Obama and McCain know where they need to focus in order to impress the electorate.
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Equally though, isn't it interesting (and I quote a section of the guardian article below) that when a woman in the audience "accused" Obama of being an Arab, McCain's response was to say that no, in fact, he is a decent law abiding citizen. If I were an American Arab citizen I would be disgusted with this perpetual insinuation that Arab = Bad. There has been much talk of this election being an election of race ("Is the US ready for a black president?") but much less attention has been focused on this ingrained stigmatization towards Arabs.
"Faced with rising criticism of his negative tactics, McCain looks to have begun a rethink of his strategy. He notably toned down his rhetoric during a sweep through Minnesota, responding to one woman who called Obama an Arab: "No, ma'am. No, ma'am. He is a decent family man, citizen, that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/13/uselections2008-johnmccain
I know, I have been thinking about this ever since the guardian reported in August that people believed Obama was a muslim and this was damaging his campaign.
As if being a muslim was a disqualification from being the president.
Does anyone know if there are any muslims in the Senate or the House?
Thanks for bringing it up Maggie!
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/13/campbell.brown.obama/index.html
Not just me apparently...
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