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uncannyJdavenport

Listed below are comments made by uncannyJdavenport between Tuesday, 30th September 2008 and Sunday, 26th October 2008.

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Love and untogetherness 00:09am on 26 Oct 2008 While it is easy to condem S Palin, I think that she has been the victim of unfortunate circumstance. On some occasion she has been grossly inaccurate and contived in her speeches. Certainly, she has not backed away from goading the rather base and simplistic opinions of those that the Republicans now find so deplorable. However, to say that she has few qualities etc. is to undermine her abilities - you don;t become Governor of a state for nothing. There most be something about her. I won't agree with her policies I'm sure, but even I have to say that the coverage of her has been disproportionate.

That said though, she has clearly had a difference of communication with McCain. Perhaps that is as much his fault as anyone elses; as candidate he is ultimately responsible for his campaign. Either way though, their poor communication and lack of chemistry cannot be hidden from the US population (even with the Fox network).

The 'case' for McCain is interesting, but seems to disregard some crucial elements about historical arguments. For example, the chief criticism of the war in Iraq is nto the strageic purpose, but the level of innocent deaths attributed to it. IN short, a considerable number of people felt that too may died simply to remove one dictator (out of many in the world), whose threat to US security was dubious to say the least. Burma is responsible for 15% of illegal opium, much of which goes to the US - planning on invading Burma anytime soon? I doubt it.

Also, harking about the qualities of McCain in terms of his experience is shallow and open to attack. Bush had experience (he was Governor of Texas remember - bigger than Alaska). However, that didn't stop Osama Bin Laden from escaping in Afghanistan. It didn't stop Al Qaida regrouping in Pakistan. It didn't stop many US soldiers dying needlessly in Iraq for a false cause.

ONe man's experience is another man's baggage. In my view, I think that McCain is carrying too much. However, I';m not a US citizen, so I will await the decision of the US people with interest. JUst please - no Florida 2000. I'm not sure how people will react this time.
Did McCain do enough? 07:11am on 16 Oct 2008 Possibly a fair overview, but I think that the underlying problem for McCain is that he didn't score any major hits. If the McCain campaign is hoping that a few presidential debates would swing this election, then really their campaign plan is pretty poor. Looking at Obama's performances I am not sure that he has been playing to win exactly - his performances have been cool and focused, but hardly exhilirating. I suspect rather that he has tried to 'draw' with McCain on these debates and thus neutralise him. At this stage, Obama doesn't need to win any debate if he is ahead. Perhaps if the race was closer, he might have felt more inclined to take a risk and take the fight back to McCain.

That news about Powell would add another shock element to this highly surprising campaign. It would also be another devastating knock to McCain's campaign.

On that note, there's still 3 weeks to go. McCain's windows of opportunities are growing smaller and smaller. Obama's camapigns, hisotrically, have gained momentum in the last few weeks of a camapign (if his primary camapign is anything to go by). To use an analogy that the US might appreciate - Obama's got plenty of clips left for his gun, but is McCain only left with blanks?
Did deregulation really cause the crisis? 9:56pm on 06 Oct 2008 It's important that points like this are made, in the interests of open and fair debate.

However, I don't agree with the view that the democrats are to blame. The suggestion that banks were forced by 'left wingers' into less scrupulous lending is a little hard to swallow. There are some banks (e.g. the Cooperative) that have strong ethical standards and these are most often the ones that are hearlded by the left. It is a common approach by the right to blame the left and vice versa - there's probably enough blame to go around. If the democrats are at fault, it is probably that, yes, they were encouraging banks to open up mortgages for people. However, I think that the banks promptly exploited the lack of regulation to pretty do whatever they wanted (in the best spirit of free market 'principles').

I don't think that Barack Obama will be restricted by any mandate; ultimately - assuming he is elected - he'll be in a position to do whatever is necessary to solve this crisis.

It is a little churlish for republicans and their supporters to argue that the Democrats are misleading people about the major issues, when the Rebulicans owe their last 2 victories to such activity (and, indeed, the 1988 election).

People in the US I think are clearly identifying the Republicans with principles of deregulation (which would be right) and have thus identified them with the current crisis. If the case against the democrats is that strong, I wonder why McCain has not proposed a stronger set of economic regulations to get some control of the current political situation back.

I suspect that the real reason is the one that the first article mentioned - Obama has a better economic team and economics is not McCain's strongest suit. That knowledge, more than anything, is what I think is guiding the American voters.
Debate expectations 11:17pm on 30 Sep 2008 An astute reminder that Joe Biden and the democrats should not take this debate for granted. There is more pressure on Biden due to the greater level of expectation.

As long as he remains calm, Biden should be able to manage Sarah Palin. Barack Obama did not win the first presidential debate, but popular (though not press) opinion seemed to indicate many people thought that he had. This was (I suspect) due to the more professional manner of his counternance, compared to McCain who made no eye contact, frequently interrupted and seemed to be too reliant on sarcasm to express his disagreement with his opponent.

Biden doesn't need to win the argument, he just needs to look like he does. That of course, is where he runs the risk of coming unstuck. Too pushy and both he and Obama may pay a price for it.

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