Janet Collins
Billy MThe race for the US President – it’s enough to make you want to vote!
June 10th 2008 10:28
This week's US Time Magazine cover. Photography Callie Shell
While I had little time for talk of whether or not a black man could make it to the White House or whether or not a woman could be the first woman President of America, the race between the two for the Democrat nomination got me right in – hook, line and sinker.
We all like “firsts” and I am no different. I will admit there were times when I thought a “first woman President” would be a good thing but so have I also thought a black man taking the reins could be just as refreshing. These are facts about candidates that can offer marketability but marketing can only do so much. It’s what they have to offer that really counts.. What people want out of their candidate is someone who understands. They need to know they will be looked after, that they will not be done over or even worse, ignored.
I don’t think I have ever been as interested in American politics as I have been this year. If the primaries can be this interesting, the Presidential elections later in the year promise to be pretty interesting indeed. Predictions of a likely record voter turnout can only be a good thing, although I remember the chaos that erupted when voter turnout far exceeded expectations back in 2004.
Why did Hillary lose the race? There are many opinions on this one. The ones I tend to side with the most are that she and her campaign team had underestimated the ability and the charisma of her opponent, the mistakes she made when things started turning in her opponent’s favour and that she offered nothing that was new. Obama was willing to listen to people and offer them change.
But this was not the presidential race, it was the primaries. The voting delegates were diehard Democrats anyway. Obama has become their one hope of a Democrat once again in the White House and he will need to win over a swag of Republican faithfuls across the country to get there.
Politics being politics, all the negative tricks against him are likely to explode again. They’ll probably even find a few more. I would not call a 46 year old with degrees in law and political science, experience as the President of the Harvard Law Review, a lengthy career in community organising and a law teacher in Chicago, along with experience in his own state legislature and a Senator federally since 2004, inexperienced. His handling of the campaign from start to finish was level headed and mature, even when things got nasty, in comparison to Clinton who stumbled and told some very blatant lies that will forever haunt her.
Presidential hopes now dashed. Courtesy of News Limited, The Daily Telegraph Library. Hillary Clinton: Her Life
I have always held strong views on the ridiculous amounts of money that go into these campaigns in America. Our campaigns in Australia often even try to mimic them. But if this campaign can mobilise the masses and have more people than ever before to get out there and vote as is predicted, then the money has done more than provide the usual rock concert style rallies.
Stories of Obama’s life and background will certainly provide a backdrop to a Presidential hopeful we have not before seen, but I cannot entertain the notion that he got there because he is black. Neither can I entertain the view that Obama will or will not become the President because he is black. He got there through sheer hard work, an ability to mobilise delegates and volunteers everywhere and by offering change and hope.
Back in 1979 in another western democracy, England, a woman by the name of Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister and ruled the country with more force than any man would have ever dared. For that she will ever be known as the “Iron Lady”.
A different system and a different country England may be, but back then women were not only discouraged from embarking on careers that could jeopardise their home duties but were loudly criticised for doing so. To pursue a career in politics, a confirmed male-only club, was the epitome of irresponsibility for a woman with a husband and children to look after.
It may not have been the 1950s but in 1979 feminists were still fighting hard for change. You see, nothing is really all that predictable.
Will he be the next President? Courtesy of News Limited, The Daily Telegraph Gallery. Barack Obama: His Life
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