World Political Blog » McCain

Tension in the McCain camp over Palin

Ashish — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:37:49 +0000

More and more, it seems like John McCain did not do the right amount of thinking before selecting his vice-Presidential candidate. Sarah Palin has turned out to be an extremely polarizing figure, with a section of conservatives very enamored of her; a large section of the electorate however sees her a person who is certainly not presidential. Her view-points, her seemingly lack of grasp of international issues and the fact that if McCain became President, she would be next in line to be President (in case something happens to McCain, and he is 72 years old after all), all have combined to turn large sections of the electorate away from her.
It also seems clear that she has ambitions of her, and the support of sections of the conservative legion have only increased this level of ambition. Initially, when the McCain campaign seemed to be running close to the Obama campaign in terms of numbers, she would have accepted the lead of the McCain campaign to govern her activities, including a stifling press interaction. But as time passed by, and it seemed that McCain is on the verge of losing, Sarah is striking out. She is projecting that she was not comfortable with some of the campaign policies including a reduction in the direct attacks on Obama, that she was not comfortable with her careful and gradual introduction to the campaign. For her, the current campaign is just a springboard to get the public and the conservatives to get to know her as a national figure, not a Governor of a state on the edge of the country. Towards this end, she is also constantly projecting herself as a person representing small town America, the real America. This is also making the McCain campaign staffers see red:

With 10 days until Election Day, long-brewing tensions between GOP vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin and key aides to Sen. John McCain have become so intense, they are spilling out in public, sources say. Several McCain advisers have suggested to CNN that they have become increasingly frustrated with what one aide described as Palin “going rogue.” A Palin associate, however, said the candidate is simply trying to “bust free” of what she believes was a damaging and mismanaged roll-out.
“She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone,” said this McCain adviser. “She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else. “Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves, as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom.” But two sources, one Palin associate and one McCain adviser, defended the decision to keep her press interaction limited after she was picked, both saying flatly that she was not ready and that the missteps could have been a lot worse.

No matter whether she decides to increase her national persona, and campaigns for the 2012 election (assuming that McCain loses this one), she will remain a deeply polarizing figure – somebody very popular with the conservatives and who turns off a large section of voters on the center and the Democratic voters. If a section of the Republican Party feels that with her current appeal to conservatives, she can become a national figure who could stand for President in the following election, they have another think coming.

Sarah Palin’s new wardrobe and controversy

Ashish — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 10:47:06 +0000

When John McCain selected the Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin as his vice-Presidential candidate, it was initially seen as a master-stroke. After all, for conservatives who were dubious of his credentials given his many maverick policies, it was the presentation of a person who was everything that a good conservative should be. Family oriented, anti-abortion, anti-homosexual, believing Christian, and so on. And then she would also try and sway some of the women to her side.
However, things have not been turning out quite that way. It now seems quite obvious that John McCain did not really vet the nomination to the required detail. She is turning out to have quite a few skeleton’s in her closet. It was initially itself understood that she does not have national security credentials and any grasp of foreign affairs, but the long drawn out process for letting her give interviews, for letting the press ask her the tough questions (more like a thorough grilling that they give to candidates), all of them make it seem that she is just not ready for the post of being a person who is next in line to the President, and would act as the President in the case of any emergency.

However, it was the next shock of her involvement in the constant bringing of pressure on as well as the firing of the head police man (who refused to fire the state trooper Wooten, in a messy divorce with the sister of Sarah Palin) that made things even worse. An enquiry just barely cleared her, but made it clear that she had not acted appropriately (what the enquiry said was that she had the right to fire the police chief, but there were ethical issues involved). And now this:

Even if it was legal for the Republican National Committee to drop $150,000 at Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s, it went against the spirit of the campaign finance law John McCain championed in the Senate, legal experts said. The news of how the party laid out the big bucks to put Palin in fancy frocks, leather stiletto boots and a new hairdo divided the electorate.
But Russ Glines, 48, a McCain supporter from Salem, N.H., said her Alaska governor’s wardrobe should have been good enough. “She’s a fine dresser on her own,” he said. “We should use our money more wisely. “Her appeal is not in her dress as much as in her belief system,” Glines added. Amy Elliott, 37, of Dunedin, Fla., a stay-at-home mom at a pro-Obama rally in Tampa, was shocked by the expense.
“I would be a Republican if they would do my hair and makeup for me,” she said. “I didn’t even spend $150 on my [three] children’s clothes this year.”

This is an issue that can stoke a lot of controversy. In these tough economic conditions where there is a problem with respect to consumer spending, such behavior can be a problem. It puts off a lot of people who suddenly feel squeamish about the amount of spent, the sheer disregard for feelings of people, and has the potential to reduce her support to some extent. There are others who are unconcerned about such things, and would try to decide on a candidate based on their policies and past history.

First debate between McCain and Obama: No clear winners

Ashish — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 17:45:50 +0000

The first debate between the 2 contenders ended in mostly a draw. Different media are reporting different winners, so you can guess as to how balanced the discussion was. Well, actually, both these contenders are seen to be great speakers, they know their points by now and so do their audiences. In such a close fight, it is almost impossible for either of them to say anything new or radically different from what they have spoken before, so even though the debate was interesting, it was abundantly clear that the debate would not have any clear winners. So, for example, if you take this CNN Report, it mentions that Obama was slightly higher in terms of a perceived debate winner, but not by too much, and the poll had more Democrats than Republicans.

Men were nearly evenly split between the two candidates, with 46 percent giving the win to McCain and 43 percent to Obama. But women voters tended to give Obama higher marks, with 59 percent calling him the night’s winner, while just 31 percent said McCain won. “It can be reasonably concluded, especially after accounting for the slight Democratic bias in the survey, that we witnessed a tie in Mississippi tonight,” CNN Senior Political Researcher Alan Silverleib said. “But given the direction of the campaign over the last couple of weeks, a tie translates to a win for Obama.”

More than two-thirds of debate watchers agreed that both McCain and Obama would be able to handle the job of president if elected. National security has been an issue where McCain has held an advantage, but his edge over Obama — 49 percent to 45 percent — on the question of which candidate would best handle terrorism is within the poll’s 4.5 percent margin of error.

Their positions are now almost set in stone; McCain is now firmly in the camp of the conservative wing of the Republican Party, although the initial excitement over the selection of a young, impressive lady conservative such as Sarah Palin is now starting to wear off. The relentless press has been pushing and finding the kinks in her armor, and attacking all the weak spots that it can find. At the same time, the ‘change’ and ‘values’ candidate Obama is seemingly running against a section of voters who will not vote for him (racist?), and has started running more attacking and negative ads that attack the McCain camp.
It is not only the campaigns that have positions set in stone because of their support bases; even huge sections of the voters have decided which of the parties they traditionally vote for, it is just the undecided voters who will decide who becomes the next President of the United States.