Republican Recriminations

The recriminations in the Republican party have well and truly started. The news today being reported in Fox News about the in-fighting between the Palin and McCain camps and the lack of Sarah Palin's knowledge is worrying.

The first thing that has to be said, is thank heavens Obama won the election. The USA needed intelligence and gravitas in the White House, not a joke. For all the talk of a bandwagon developing for a Palin bid for the Presidency in 2012, it needs to be resisted and the Republicans must find serious and heavyweight leadership for the party.

But not only do these stories highlight the concerns many had with the prospect of a Palin Vice-Presidency, they raise serious questions over McCain's judgement and how Palin passed any sort of vetting process to be chosen for the ticket. What is clear now is that the Palin choice was a stunt aimed at boosting McCain in the polls, and not a serious decision on someone who would be a heartbeat away from the Presidency.

What also is interesting, is that even Fox News is starting to debunk the theory that McCain was leading in the polls until the problems with the economy really came to the fore with the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. The idea that McCain would have won the election if it wasn't for the economic crisis is just wrong. Analysis of the polling now shows that the McCain lead started to wane after Palin's now infamously inept interview with Katie Couric on CBS.

The choice of Palin sealed McCain's fate in the election. He gambled by chosing Palin and it failed. It blunted the attack on Obama's inexperience and turned off many independents. To Obama's credit, he never faltered or panicked when the Palin pick was dominating the news and the polls gave a bounce to Palin. He and his team recognised that the election was not decided months before polling date and that Palin would become a liability.

Thankfully, it seems that being able to see Russia from Alaska is not enough these days to win a US election...

History Part III

It's Jeremy Paxman's turn now.

If the vote goes with the polls, the result of the election will go down in history

Surely which ever way the vote goes tonight, the result will become part of history...

My Biggest Hope for Election Night

My biggest hope for election night tonight is that Jeremy Vine doesn't attempt any gun-slinging antics in his graphical analysis of the results on the BBC coverage.

Please Mr Vine, no gimmicks tonight. Just treat the audience as adults and present the facts with gravitas.

We shall see...

History Part II

Gordon Brown is at it now. According to the Telegraph, Gordon Brown has said today: 

I think whatever the result of the American election... history has been made in this campaign

Thanks for sharing your wisdom with us Prime Minister.  I really had no idea, until you provided enlightenment, that events happen and then they become history...

History

The BBC news website is leading with this headline today:

Just a thought, but doesn't every US poll become historic once it happens?

Conservative Bloggers for Obama

The well-known and respected Conservative blogger Iain Dale has risked the wrath of many on the right by declaring his support for Barack Obama in the November US elections.

His blog piece is a thoughtful, excellent and in places very personal analysis of why Conservatives should abandon their traditional support of the Republicans and the failings of the McCain campaign. He says:

I never thought the day would come when I would not support a Republican candidate. Ronald Reagan is one of my political inspirations, but he is probably turning in his grave when he sees what has happened to the party he led with so much distinction. It has turned from the Grand Old Party into a narrow religious sect. It has lost its compassion in a desperate rush towards social fundamentalism at the same time as losing all sense of fiscal responsibility.

I had hoped that a Giuliani candidacy would shake the Republican Party out of its trance, but it was not to be. I had then hoped that John McCain might show a vision for America and the world which could stand the test of a presidential campaign. I had hoped his experience and tenacity would provide a launchpad for four years of a very different kind of Republican administration. But McCain has failed in every conceivable way. He has performed poorly in the debates, he is an uninspiring speaker and his vision is as non existent as Gordon Brown's. His policy platform simply doesn't add up and his foreign policy ideas are as unappealing as many of George Bush's.

He continues with a succinct look of the dangers of a Sarah Palin Vice-Presidency:

And then there is Sarah Palin. As regular readers know, when she was chosen I said she would prove to be an inspired choice or a car crash. The initial evidence leant towards the former. Latterly, though, we have all seen too much evidence of the latter. I defended her against the appalling media onslaught against her, which I found sexist, insulting and worse. I simply could not bring myself to believe that a Republican presidential candidate could have chosen someone so ill-equipped for the job. But I was wrong, and I now accept that. McCain has not been a well man. He is 72 years old and has had cancer four times. His whole demeanour indicates that he might well not live through a whole four year term. Yet despite the intensity of the vetting process, he still chose Sarah Palin, a woman whose charisma temporarily masked her complete unsuitability to be one heartbeat away from the Presidency.

I find myself in absolute agreement with Iain.   I took the view some time ago that I would be supporting Barack Obama.  He provides some inspiration and hope to those, both at home and abroad who have seen it fade away over the last 8 years of a failed Bush Presidency.   Will Obama/Biden win in Novmember?  I believe 'yes they can'....

The US Botox Debate?

The first thing that strikes me watching the US presidential debate tonight is just how much botox must have been used before hand. Both Tom Brokaw and John McCain look in a constant state of surprise!

Brokaw is 68 years old, McCain is 72. At least they're both making every effort to make sure that there's at least one sector of the US economy that isn't struggling in these difficult times...