So it’s all over, and the result everyone knew was coming came. Still, I never quite expected the landslide that eventually came (Obama currently leads 338-163, and it may well end 364-174. Not bad compared to Bush’s 271-269 win in 2000). While the result looked pretty much beyond doubt even before yesterday, I still tuned in to a considerable chunk of CNN’s coverage, and switched over to FOX’s once in a while for a good laugh. If you don’t know what I mean, you haven’t been following the elections enough!
Which brings me to my next point – suddenly Facebook statuses became a flood of victory proclamations that largely went to the tune of “Change has come” or “May Barack lead us to a new world” or things like that. It was slightly bemusing, because honestly, I don’t think Obama will come even close to meeting his campaign promises in the next year, and perhaps not even in his entire term. Either way, his policies and promises don’t look like any form of panacea to the problems the world and his country face now.
I felt both candidates are really similar in terms of their aptitude towards the economy (read: not very strong), so where it mattered most to me were things like foreign policy and energy issues, and to a lesser degree (since I’m not American), taxes and healthcare. Obama clearly wins on his healthcare promises, but in terms of foreign policy and energy, I’m way behind McCain. Well, not his Drill, Baby, Drill tirade but his plans for more nuclear plants. Obama promised to stop nuclear proliferation, to shut down the coal industry (if I’m not mistaken), and yet to reduce US reliance on imported oil. How? Raising oil prices? I’m not sure that would’ve been the right thing to do in the current state of the economy. Foreign policy – no fight, McCain clearly has the greater experience (and it’s not just from being a P.O.W.).
Anyway, I felt McCain would’ve been the more suitable president, and might have been if it wasn’t for the totally inept handling of his campaign, and the nomination of Sarah Palin, which probably destroyed his last hope of winning the election. In fact, the tactics of hate and deceit, and in Palin’s case, pure idiocy, reduced my admiration for the man to pity, and you only have to watch a few episodes of The Daily Show to know how pathetic his campaigning really was. Or, of course, you could watch FOX and learn how great the man is.
So I really don’t know why I’m writing so much about elections I’m hardly involved in, but now that it’s over I guess I’ll just have to blog about other boring things like travel and photography.
2 Comments
November 9, 2008 at 2:04 am
nice views, wm.
November 9, 2008 at 7:32 am
heh i try my best. but honestly it’s just amazing how unrealistic some of the expectations people have. obama will certainly not heal the world, in fact i think he will be a very moderate centrist president, and make pretty safe decisions rather than radical, “change”-driven ones. but then again he’s still a much, much better choice than mccain-palin.