I used to think that there were no differences of substance between the Right and Left of U.S. politics, per Nader and John Ralston Saul. The election of Bush Jr. showed me that I was wrong.
Obama’s secured the Democratic party candidacy. Good. It is nice to see that the most powerful democracy in the world won’t spend nearly a quarter-century with presidents alternating from two dinner tables – twenty years is quite long enough.
Obama will be working with Elizabeth Edwards on healthcare. Good. Healthcare is a huge mess in the U.S., concerns about healthcare cross partisan lines like no other issue. Obama’s weakness on healthcare also sent many voters to Clinton, who was stronger on this issue (e.g. ).
The election will be messy and nasty. The Republican strategists were ready to go mean on Clinton – they’ve been building ammo on her for years. Obama is much trickier, a relative naif with little dirt in his backstory, and what dirt there is has been played out in the dem primary. They’re left with all the dogwhistle stuff – he’s black, his name’s Hussein, he’s a secret muslim. There will be a lot of this crazy insinuation coming through until the election hits – witness this astonishing Fox News characterisation of a standard-issue fist bump as a terrorist fist jab.
The election should be a walk for Obama. It won’t be, though, because the U.S. is not a sane environment and its political culture has been thoroughly debased. Nevertheless, I eagerly anticipate the first president of the U.S. who’s not a white dude. He can’t be any worse than the current office holder.
Roll on the new era.