Election Round-Up

Starting from West to East, we begin once more with Gov. Palin. It was with wonderment I read this morning that she was now expected to assist the ‘Troopergate’ probe … until I read it wasn’t the legislative probe she’d originally agreed to before she was tapped as Veep, but the probe by the state personnel board, which board’s members are hand-picked by, um, the governor. The bipartisan state legislature investigation can still, apparently, pound sand.

Whatever one can say about Governor Palin, she certainly has had an influence on the GOP so far. For a sterling example, consider the South Carolina GOP official who, in flunking his sobriety test, invoked the “Palin Defense”, i.e., how the governor’s home family problems showed that any upright citizen might have some personal difficulties that should be forgiven and overlooked. Uh-huh.

The McCain campaign is out for blood these days, complaining that the media is wildly biased against them and for Obama, managed to include a marvelous array of errors in their criticism — though the accusation would have been laughable anyway. Meanwhile, we have the spectacle of McCain continue to criticize Washington insiders and lobbyists while packing his campaign leadership with them. And in foreign policy, McCain’s ostensible (“Zapatero!”) strong point, he’s signaling further disengagement from any peace negotations in the Middle East, while bringing on a senior advisor who once suggested (seriously) occupying the Saudi oil fields by military force.

In the meantime, George Will (of all people) has come out with guns blazing at McCain, calling him “the Queen of Hearts” for his “Arf with their ‘eads” dispeptic temper, and Manichaean melodramatic response to crises. Money quote:

It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?

Um … no.

Obama‘s been the victim of an online whispering campaign based on an unsubstantiated newspaper article (in the New York Post, no less) that hinted that Obama had pushed Iraqi PM Maliki into delaying any sort of agreement on troop withdrawals. The Right — and McCain’s campaign — have been all a-twitter about Obama interfering in foreign policy like that, playing politics with soldiers’ lives, undermining the commander-in-chief, etc. 

The problem being, of course, not only are the charges easily refuted, it turns out it was the Bush Administration playing with the withdrawal negotiations in order to not hurt McCain’s candidacy. Nice bit of politics there, boys!

Still, it is in the world of foreign policy that the first Presidential Debate will be held on Friday. Interestingly enough, folks are expecting McCain to edge out Obama, both because of the (poorly grounded) assumption that McCain’s some sort of (“Zapatero!”) foreign policy expert, and because Obama’s oratorical skills are less suited to the debate structure than McCain’s stiff folksiness and random rictus grins.

But if rhetoric won’t win this election, the Right’s biggest hope is lies and innuendo. So we have the NRA making up Obama policies, mouthpieces like Limbaugh claiming Obama isn’t black, he’s Arab, and and increasing use of the word “uppity” amongst GOP campaign people (hmmmmm … an “uppity Arab”? No, that doesn’t sound quite right …)

Joe Biden’s not been much in the news aside from some off the cuff (and mildly embarrassing) comments about an ad from his own campaign. He did raise the excellent point that, since we’re relying on them for a huge amount of the manpower in our current fighting, it’s only right that the National Guard should have some sort of seat at the Joint Chiefs of Staff table.

Finally, some criticism has been leveled at the three senators on the campaign trail not being back in Washington to deal with and vote on the $700 Billion to Nowhwere. I have to defend them in this case, even Sen. McCain — their presence in the Senate would not add substantially to the debate going on, esp. since everything they say is being trumpeted in the headlines anyway. It would be symbolic, at best — and as long as they’re ready to go hallooing back there in case of a tight vote, it seems they all have something arguably more important to be doing.

And so it goes.