McCain-Palin Ticket to Nowhere
By Farhana Mohamed, PhD
CA
Senator John McCain is a highly celebrated Vietnam War hero who spent several years in captivity in Vietnam and has served the US Congress for the last 26 years. His running mate Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin is a novice to the national political scene with only two-year service as the Governor. Prior to being the Governor, she was the Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.
During and after the initial weeks following the Republican Party Primary in early September, Governor Sarah Palin came from nowhere and took the limelight away from Senator Barack Obama and Senator Joe Biden. Most Americans, especially neo-conservatives, were fascinated by her strong “pit-bull” stand on conservative agenda (being pretty also helped) and Senator John McCain could not be happier.
However, mainly because of McCain and Palin missteps, and with some help from the downturn in the economy and Wall Street woes, the scale is shifting once more in favor of the Obama-Biden ticket. While things could change, it seems that the Obama side is continuing to gain momentum, especially, following the two Presidential Debates on September 26 and October 7, 2008, and the Vice Presidential Debate on October 2.
So what went wrong with the M-P ticket? Plenty, as could be gauged from the following:
1. In the first Presidential Debate on September 26, McCain and Obama both performed quite well but toward the end McCain appeared condescending, patronizing, and even irritating with his mantra: “Senator Obama, you don’t seem to understand.” In contrast, Obama appeared more bipartisan by agreeing with McCain (may be somewhat in excess).
2. There were inaccuracies in advertising and verbal statements from both sides but quite more pronounced and even straight lies coming from the McCain camp. Even President Bush’s former political strategist Karl Rove admitted on the conservative Fox Television that some of McCain’s ads were not, well, 100% truthful. For example, McCain himself used the term “lipstick on the pig” for Obama’s healthcare proposal but lambasted him for making sexist remarks when Obama made similar statement for McCain’s proposed tax cut policies.
3. Even when the Wall Street meltdown was obvious, McCain until recently declared that “Fundamentals of the economy are strong.” It also didn’t help when he declared that he knows “a lot less about economics,” but decided to suspend his campaign, any way, to go to White House and Capitol Hill and stay there until the Bailout Plan was approved. He also suggested to postpone the presidential debate, but flipped again by returning to participate in the first debate at the University of Mississippi. However, this erratic act backfired when CNN poll indicated that majority of the people thought his approach was not altruistic but aimed at making political gains. The USA Today/Gallup poll released on September 28 considered Obama 17% ahead of McCain in dealing with economic problems. Another CNN/Opinion Research Flash Poll conducted on October 7, following the second town hall format debate, indicated that 57% to 36% of the respondents felt that Obama could handle the finances better.
4. The “Palin Factor” is also losing its luster since Governor Palin seems to be astoundingly ill-informed about foreign affairs and has a poor grasp of economic issues. If her first interview with ABC’s Charles Gibson was mediocre, then those conducted with CBS’s Katie Couric were a disaster. If the McCain-Palin duo is elected, the scenario of her leading the country in case if something happens to 72- year old McCain, is quite scary. While an unfair comparison is being made with the Senior Bush-Quale ticket, the comparison ends right there. Dan Quale got bad press; he was less articulate but not an idiot. He was an Ivy League-educated lawyer, an author, and had a good grasp of foreign affairs. Also at that time, Senior Bush was in his sixties.
5. On October 10, Governor Palin received a blow on her claims of being a reformist and one with a mission of going after the corrupt big boys. The legislative report, while acknowledging her right to fire the Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, stated that she abused her power by unleashing a campaign against Monegan for his refusal to fire the trooper, Mike Wooten. Wooten was Palin’s former brother-in-law who had a messy divorce with her sister.
6. The McCain-Palin camp has likened McCain to a “maverick” despite him being a Washington insider for over a quarter century and staunch supporter of Bush policies including endorsement of $700 billion expenditure on the Iraq war. Palin, who has emerged as the “queen of incoherence,” has portrayed Obama as someone “paling to terrorist(s),” and arguably made racist remarks by accusing him of behaving “not like us Americans.” Recently, McCain blasted Obama’s limited acquaintance with William Ayers, who was a radical anti-Vietnam War protester in the sixties (when Obama was in elementary school) and has since mellowed.
As a credit to McCain, he has usually taken the high road and has repeatedly admonished his supporters for using racial and religious slurs against his opponent.
However for Pakistani-Americans, Senator Obama’s hawkish stance of attacking within Pakistan’s boundary “if the Pakistani government is unable or unwilling to take them out” remains a matter of great concern. There seems to be little empathy about colossal collateral damage being suffered by Pakistanis as a result of that nation’s steadfast alliance with the United States on the war of terror. Nevertheless, Obama has also repeatedly blasted the Bush administration for cozying up to General Musharraf and not engaging with the Pakistani people. On the other hand, Senator McCain has opted for a more coordinated policy with Pakistanis by “not threatening to attack them … talk softly, but carry a big stick.”
For Pakistan’s current democratic leadership, there is a sober writing on the wall: unless the “war on terror” is managed by a coherent policy developed by national consensus, there is a grave threat to Pakistan’s existence from within and outside. No matter who wins the White House, the elected US President will find it more challenging to ignore a counter-terrorism policy endorsed by the 160 millions of Pakistanis than the one pushed by a self-serving dictator for the last seven years.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
