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Us Presidential Race


Amadeus

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The yanks I have met both here and on my travels have been well informed & well educated, but they tend to have come from the east or west coast

 

I think it is very interesting to compare Britain with America. I do think though that a great deal of British people are very informed on politics, but there is just so little reason to bother voting. I do not know a lot about the American system but I wonder whether I am right in thinking that the Americans believe their political system works for everyone, or at least the majority of people. Is it just a small minority who show so much fervour in these elections or is it a reflection of a great faith in their political system.

 

 

As an American may I just comment here? I'm very much enjoying reading your ideas. I am a West Coast person, 'educated' and I hope a tad bit 'aware'. I have lived and traveled all over America and you are pretty much right on with the coastal thing and the mid section being much different. No, I don't think most of us feel that the political system reflects the majority of us, nearly the opposite. It doesn't work for many of us really and I think the reason being that those we elect do not truly represent most of us. For one, those running have to be VERY wealthy, well connected and are greatly supported by groups that have defined special interests. Secondly, they talk tons of rubbish on the campaign trail but wait until reality sets in and those special interests want payback and real life happens, then see what you get! Bush? How flippin stupid are we that we elected him again!? There was no other or better choice? Many elections are won by the tip of the hand as to who shows up and can take the heat. They drag out everything and make an issue and one votes on less of the real politics and more on the person and what is perceived about them. It's gotten to be such a dog eat dog mess that it sickens many of us and it's always a sigh and a 'lesser of two evils' deal in the end. Don't ask me how we did Bush twice, it wasn't me that's for damn sure! Most of us don't give a flip if it's a woman or black or a dog we elect, just please let it be someone who is awake, aware and enlightened and not teathered to a leash of some special interest group. Well, guess no one showed up with those qualifications so now it's back to the same old crap. Obama is sounding like the front runner but can he back it up, get us out of the Middle East with something left if we go? Give us health care we can afford? Save us from our own economy? We working class dogs are bearing the brunt of all this spending and seeing our life savings dwindle and being taxed to death and paying fortunes in health care and we hate the war and how the world sees us! Just my humble opinions however. By the way I love your Isle, was just there earlier this month and will be back in a few weeks. I have dear friends there and in Manchester so it's a bit like home to me coming over as I do. Hopefully I see it in a way that tourists really never do. Ta ta for now, thanks for letting me speak.

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  • 4 weeks later...

hope ... change ... look ... the ... challenges ... of ... our ... time ... hopes .... for change .... the challenge .... the hope .... a .. new ... direction ... towards ... a ... better ... future ... the generations .... foward ....forward in ... hope .... Change ... Hope,hope,change,change etc etc

 

If have absolutely no idea what his policies are but his speeches remind me of how Tony Blair used to sound. No doubt some of the same people are on his team.

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  • 5 months later...
History in the making?

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7586375.stm

 

Sure knows how to hold a speech - but will they really vote for him?

"I will restore our moral standing, so that America is once again that last best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, who yearn for a better future,"

 

Obama's record in Senate isn't too comforting. Nothing to suppose he will stop use of torture, close Guantanamo, or depart from insisting US has the highground which puts it above rules of international law which apply to other nation states.

 

It's typical nebulous speechmaking - people take it to mean what they want it to mean. pongo got it right - it doesn't sound any different from the things Blair and Bush were saying (did people really vote for them?). Yes, they probably will vote for him. They love this emotive patriotic puff-speak. In America you can fool the voting majority all of the time.

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I don't know if its just the way the coverage is presented on the box but I get the impression that the average american seems much more involved and interested in the political process.

Is that right or is it a false image?

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I don't know if its just the way the coverage is presented on the box but I get the impression that the average american seems much more involved and interested in the political process.

Is that right or is it a false image?

If so, maybe it's because it's more populist, with much more shallow celebrity festivity to give the campaigning very broad appeal.. e.g. Obama's daughter's appearance at the convention ("Hi Daddy...") - formulaic nauseating cutsie sugar-coated theatrics which is all stage-managed gloss and hype, but woos the public. (add lots of balloons, popcorn, thrills, excitement and general hot air).

 

(Though nowhere near the same extent, I think Blair tapped into this, and Gordon Brown - not surprisingly - fails dismally).

 

But that's only my cynical view. (not to say it's necessarily a bad thing - maybe winning attention in this way is better than not at all - it's perhaps a start and develops further interest in politics)

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I see McCain has opted for a female running mate. Obviously trying to appeal to a wider audience. Even the Republicans don't like McCain -

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Oh dear, chaos ensues already - looks like the Reps took a bit of a gamble with her...

 

Palin pregnancy news knocks GOP team off-message

 

Sarah Palin was on a roll, fresh-faced and fiery, just the boost of energy John McCain's slow-but-steady campaign needed.

 

Now that's over.

 

So far anyway, it doesn't look as if news that Palin has a pregnant teenage daughter is enough to knock her off McCain's ticket.

 

But the news does seriously knock Palin and McCain off-stride and off-message - just as they were trying to introduce her to a broader audience - and just as the public was trying to fix an image of Palin as a would-be vice president in their minds.

 

No matter how sympathetic voters are to her plight, or how much parents might believe it could happen to their daughters, this is not what McCain's camp wanted people to hear in the first 72 hours after introducing Palin.

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