Hey Big Spenders!

Image via WikipediaAh well, in the midst of financial turmoil in America, news that Americans would be taxed to support any bail out, huge, massively huge spending on overseas military action…it gets announced that the two presidential candidates are the biggest spenders in history when it comes to campaigns. 1.48 billion dollars! That is a lot of money. Do they actually need to spend all that? is that what Americans need to run a campaign? Is that what the voters expect? Can’t they do a no frills campaign? When our politicians start splashing around the cash, we get stuck into them…we even mail them back their flashy brochures and then come up with a list of preferred alternatives for political spending. A lot of political debate can be done on TV, the radio, in the papers, on the Net. Flyers don’t have to be expensive and rallies don’t have to be star studded? Or do they? America must want a lot from their candidates. Why do they have to spend that much? Luckily the fund raising has been made easier with the internet and it has actually drawn a commitment from the young ones. Now, that is a good idea to get young people involved in the political workings of their country. I realise the spending has mostly been done before the blow out occurred…maybe we all need to rethink political campaigns. The money could go towards more important things.

Is John McCain 72?

Image via WikipediaAccording to Google he is and this article. Well, now I am flummoxed. What is the matter with people? I know all about seniors and their capacity to contribute…but running a country? Even Her Majesty doesn’t run the country. It means if John McCain gets in , America will be yet another place where the elected leader ends up not being the leader. We are getting quite used to it here with our states in Australia. The people are voting for someone and then the someone disappears and another someone takes over and then there’s an election and another someone takes over. You can lose the plot and the personal impact! Leadership just becomes a blur. Is that what America wants? A leadership blur? Even if John McCain is hail and hearty, how old will he be at the next election? Elder statesmen need to play a critical role at this point in time and that is the role of wise counsel. The world is a bit frantic at the moment. You need a lot of energy, enthusiasm, guts, courage and energy to lead a nation at this point in time. So you need someone who can rally people to whatever the cause of the day is, because that seems to be how it is playing out at the moment and then you need someone who can get people on side, negotiate, network, get here there and everywhere in a hurry . Leaders seem to have to meet anywhere in the world at the drop of a hat. The need to be perpetually enthusiastic and positive. They can’t afford to be stuck in their ways or struggling for responses and that is where the elder statesmen come in. Their knowledge and experience is invaluable for reading situations and giving sound advice in terms of protocol and possible approaches. They can be the think tank online and on tap. The job itself needs someone who can get up and just go and go and go…and talk 19 to the dozen and jet hop with the best of them. That’s life in 2008.

So what about McCain?

Image via WikipediaIt would appear with 5 weeks to go that McCain is still being given a chance. People here wonder whether America, in the final analysis, would vote for Barack Obama. We know they can choose to vote or not so for us it would come down to who has the most active and interested voters. I would have given Hilary Clinton a good chance and she was going really well. It would have been so great to see a woman become President of a country which has done a lot for equal opportunity, but , like France, America just couldn’t come at a woman president and then Hilary lost it a bit. It is a long, hard trail for the Americans. I do not normally take much interest, to be honest, but I so want to see Mr. Bush gone. I think he has done a lot of damage to the world and the image of his country. We need leaders who are articulate and who can talk and negotiate. We need people who will collaborate and be a part of of the group which makes up our planet. So we are thinking, if a strong candidate like Hilary can get lost in this long trail to the election, what will happen in this last 5 weeks? There are people who just will not vote for Barack Obama. There will be those who want more of the same. The financial instability is only going to make this more complicated so I hope the Americans can get their heads around all of this and get the picture clear. It is going to be an interesting 5 weeks but I hope it doesn’t deteriorate into pot shots and smearing. So undignified and unnecessary.