ThePalinReaction

The reaction to Sarah Palin’s speech when she accepted the Republican Party’s nomination for the role of Vice President was even bigger than that given to her Presidential running mate, John McCain, when he appeared in front of his convention and a TV audience of 39 million. This slightly exceeded the number of television viewers that Obama attracted and validates the view that this election is still too close to call.

Certainly my mailbag reflected a very lively debate taking place on this election across America and finding its way across the pond. The Presidential race has taken off after the electrifying introduction of Sarah Palin.

Many of my correspondents adopted the stance that, because I rated Palin’s speech so highly I obviously rate her as highly. Well, the truth is I don’t know any more about her than any of you and it’s way too early to make a proper judgment, either way. It wouldn’t be possible to say she’s the best thing since sliced bread, but equally the liberal media’s attempt to paint her as the devil incarnate is absurd.

Some of you agree that this media bias exists but what was clear is how polarized American opinion is over who the next President will be. It is more super charged and heated than political choice usually is from my liberal left leaning friends, and I wonder if that’s because they are beginning to realize that this election is not going to be the walkover they had been anticipating.

As a foreigner I should maintain the strict public neutrality that I suggest should be the role of the American media. To that end we shall revisit these themes as the election unfolds. It is sad that serious debate should be so obviously trivialized by both sides and their supporters but if you look back into history this has always been the case. It’s just more evident now.

What should happen now is that there should be public and open debate through which we should learn more about the candidates and their true personalities. I am concerned that the spin-doctors are so busy managing events that we might not get to do so. In the UK we recently had an election for the Mayor of London, won by a Conservative maverick, Boris Johnson. He could almost be the British political son of John McCain; his spin-doctors were able to get him elected whilst stage-managing his campaign to avoid his ever saying anything. I wonder if the British Conservatives and American Republicans are lending each other their political playbook?

If that is the case we can anticipate McCain and Obama will keep the campaigns general whilst the respective Vice-Presidential candidates slug it out on the detail. I think that would be a big mistake for Obama. He needs to let us know what he aims to do, and how he’s going to do it. It is becoming obvious that the American public already trusts the honor of McCain, even if they don’t necessarily agree with his politics, whereas the voters admire Obama, his oratory and his ability as a Professor and machine politician, but there is not a long history of great orators or Professors or machine politicians winning the Presidency.

Everything should be in favor of the Democratic Party after Iraq, George W Bush’s perceived failures and a faltering economy, which makes it even more surprising that McCain is simply not fading away.