Food Politics

The Americans seem to be enjoying this campaign in lots of ways. With the comic book biographies and now the food polls there is a healthy mix of serious and then the light hearted approach which enables people to ingest and digest all the information and serious issues. You cannot always be straight faced and frustrated. Sometimes you just have to lighten up and laugh. So when I read the article about how they are doing food polls, I was thinking this is a pretty cheery idea and a good way to find out in a straw vote how people might be thinking. I mean there is a method in the menu madness but there is a sense of fun too. At this stage Obama Barack is two thirds to John McCain’s one third in the food voting.Add to that that Obama Barack was judged to be the winner of the third debate,then you can think that he is in an excellent position to win the election. But I remember when George Bush looked like he was going to lose and he magically won. Same with John Howard here. We were silent the next day because we couldn’t work out how it had happened. I should like to think America can ride the crest of the wave of change to the finishing line and get the chance to remodel and revamp, because change too often brings anxiety, but overdue change brings such a feeling of liberation.

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.

The Home Stretch Election 2008

Image via WikipediaI was hoping that the home run on this American election would be able to be completed without the smearing, jeering and pot shots. I hate it when you get a political campaign which just deteriorates into mud slinging and it is a feature which became prevalent in the Bush/Blair/Howard era and it was not worthy of us. To have our politicians do nothing more that take aim and fire insults and nonsense to each other is just so undignified and immensely irritating when you know that we can all do better. The political discussions which have hitherto occurred have been interesting. They were interesting during the French campaign too and the fact we are interested here tells me how much thought has gone into the campaigns…and how much Australians have woken up. We do take a proper interest in world affairs now and we see that as important if we are to work with people. Please don’t let this deteriorate into mudslinging. It has been so good to watch a tough campaign be fought all along the way. Low level thoughtless nonsense will neither further nor help anyone.You cannot fly like an eagle when you are surrounded by turkeys.

Yes We Care

Image via Wikipedia“He makes me think of America the myth, the land of the free, the way it thinks of itself but doesn’t often behave,” she said.

This is unbelievable. This is different. We have got Australians who feel so strongly that they can identify with Barack Obama as the president of a country we have such a long association with, that they are prepared to go over to America and do whatever the Barack Obama campaign offices need. This is such an amazing thing. There are young ones and political veterans and they are doing it for the same reason I am doing this I guess. We need an America with a person who is approachable and who can work with the world. We need someone who can talk and engage with others. Whether Americans want that is another matter. It is their country, but surely they must be tired of Mr. Bush spending all their money overseas funding destructive initiatives? Barack Obama is popular here and it’s because you sense he does care and that he can hold a proper conversation with anyone. He doesn’t appear to be short of words or capacity to empathise. Facebook has a Yes We Care group which was founded by an Australian and it is going really well. We want to see America do well so we are barracking for Barack! Can you believe that? Yes We Care.

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.

Did Obama win?

Image via WikipediaSo did Obama win the debate or not? Our newspaper sites are saying the polls said he won, but on the radio coming home there was an interview with a reporter from CNN and he appeared to be quite clear about the fact McCain won. It’s going to be pretty tough at this stage. Like Howard’s government here, the Republicans have been in power for a very long time and they are not going to want to give up that position any more than Mr. Howard wanted to here. Once people get into power they tend to think they are the only ones who can run a country and then feel jealous about the fact someone else might be able to. I think the Americans are ready for a big change the same as we were. There are things which need to be done and there are different ways of looking at things, so you have to create the change or you stagnate. The financial crisis seems to be the thing. It’s weird how that has come about at election time but I guess that’s co incidence. It has come here right in time for the new government to be confronted with some pretty tough stuff…So I think you need to ask, who started this financial crisis, how has it come about and what was the time frame. Barack Obama is very flexible in his thinking and appears to have a lot of support. John McCain seems to be more of the same. The audience judging the debate would have been tough because they were the people who were not swayed either way and were asking some pretty pertinent questions. In the end, the Americans will put it all together and vote for what they want…it’s a pretty tricky situation with the finances, but I think the Americans don’t need me to tell them that.