Israel told US it is modeling Gaza attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 22:35 Nov 05 0 comments UK Government manipulation of the BBC and social media over Covid 21:40 Sep 19 0 comments Good Riddance to Biden - Bye Bye Bidens 23:13 Apr 18 0 comments Exposed: Ireland’s Leading Far-right Politicians Unmasked… 20:58 Dec 07 0 comments The political power of Facebook 21:40 Oct 17 0 comments more >>Blog Feeds
Anti-EmpireUkraine Buys Huge Amounts of Russian Fue... Fri Jan 20, 2023 08:34 | Antonia Kotseva Turkey Has Sent Ukraine Cluster Munition... Thu Jan 12, 2023 00:26 | Jack Detsch New Israeli Government Promises to Talk ... Tue Jan 10, 2023 21:13 | Al Majadeen Russia Training Iranian Pilots Ahead of ... Tue Jan 10, 2023 15:19 | The Times of Israel Lukashenko Abolishes Copyright Protectio... Tue Jan 10, 2023 15:05 | Nikki Main
Human Rights in IrelandA Blog About Human RightsUN human rights chief calls for priority action ahead of climate summit Sat Oct 30, 2021 17:18 | Human Rights 5 Year Anniversary Of Kem Ley?s Death Sun Jul 11, 2021 12:34 | Human Rights Poor Living Conditions for Migrants in Southern Italy Mon Jan 18, 2021 10:14 | Human Rights Right to Water Mon Aug 03, 2020 19:13 | Human Rights Human Rights Fri Mar 20, 2020 16:33 | Human Rights
Lockdown Skeptics
Women?s Team with Five Male Players Wins Football Competition After One Male Player ?Broke Opponent?... Thu Mar 28, 2024 19:30 | Will Jones
Further Evidence Gaza Casualty Numbers Are Fake Thu Mar 28, 2024 17:36 | Will Jones
Don?t Be Fooled by the ?Britain is Growing? Fairytales Thu Mar 28, 2024 15:22 | David Craig
Climate: The Movie is a Perfect Cure for Climate Anxiety Thu Mar 28, 2024 13:00 | Toby Young
The WHO?s Plot to Seize Power Over Nation States in Future Pandemics Must Be Stopped Thu Mar 28, 2024 11:12 | Will Jones
Voltaire NetworkVoltaire, international editionMoscow attack reminds us of the links between Islamists and Kiev's fundamentalis... Tue Mar 26, 2024 06:57 | en Failure to assist a people in danger of genocide, by Hassan Hamadé Tue Mar 26, 2024 06:32 | en Yugoslavia March 24, 1999 The Founding War of the New Nato, by Manlio Dinucci Sun Mar 24, 2024 05:15 | en France opposes Russian Korean-style peace project in Ukraine Sat Mar 23, 2024 11:11 | en Voltaire, International Newsletter N°79 Fri Mar 22, 2024 11:40 | en |
The first vice-presidential election in US history
international |
politics / elections |
opinion/analysis
Friday September 12, 2008 14:22 by godzilla
Obama has lost in ten of the last 12 opinion polls for the United States presidential election, 2008. His margin has between a 6point loss in the first week of September and a 4point loss in the last three days. Those who know how the USA voting public works blame this losing streak on Palin. It certainly seems to make sense as of the 57 US nationwide polls carried out thus far Mc Cain has only won 12. Historically the constitutional role of the US vice-president within the institutions of executive and legislative government has been both clear & vague. The VP is the person who automatically steps into the shoes of the President of the United States (POTUS) in the case of bullets going through heads or espionage & abuse of executive power is discovered. Such were the well-remembered cases of JFK and Nixon. That much is clear. |
View Comments Titles Only
save preference
Comments (2 of 2)
Jump To Comment: 1 2Obviously the European voter sees beyond the sophistication by which the Republicans brought out a meat eating gun toting white mom from Alaska to see off the bad snooty black guy. The South Americans with their equal distrust of either ruling flavour in the USA have long ago learnt however that there are patterns to overt & the generally nearly always present covert inteference in their affairs. So it's interesting to see how they weigh up the desirability of their next "shadow president" : should it be the democrat's Biden who looks the part in a Hollywood movie way or should it be Palin who has least positioned herself ironically as desiring less dependence on South American oil allbeit as a side effect of pushing homegrown exploitation. Last night as both US presidential candidates moved to condemn the expulsions this week of US ambassadors to Bolivia, Honduras and Venezuela their campaign teams also moved to seem take the tougher stance on the presence of the Russian navy for jonit exercises with Venezuela. Biden has never taken much interest in the southern neighbours, his voting record showed that on the few votes where he broke the line and went with Republicans it was on migrant welfare issues. As grey haired white anglosaxon protestant Biden's automatic response to South America as a Democrat will probably be to increase pressure. Republicans turn up Justice spending and attention on vice and obscenity whilst Democrats traditionally pay attention to the organisation of drug supply. Even though the words of one of Joe Biden's adivisors during Biden's failed presidential nomination campaign compared Chavez to Hitler, most of his Biden's Foreign affairs comittee activity or other overseas experience has been focussed on quibbling with Republicans on Iraq, Israel & Iran. After all he was there when they signed the Israeli Egyptian peace treaty in 1979. He really has the profile of being a good "shadow president".
Palin had to admit last night in her first television interview that she has never in fact met a foreign head of state. Nor have most of us. They don't shit in the woods and they don't queue in Walmart. But rather than play that character she began to talk about delegations who visit Alaska. Just before she managed to mouth the routine response that hordes of important delegates are regularly welcomed in Alaska to shoot polar bears, cull seals, bag moose, grub for gold or rent secret bases - the interviewer rephrased the question.
“I’m talking about somebody who’s a head of state, who can negotiate for that country. Ever met one?”
The woman who quite honestly most Americans would like as shadow president or to step into the shoes of the 44th POTUS -[were he to (a) get shot (b) keel over dead coz the batteries ran out ]- answered in the negative. This is the first VP hopeful in the history of the US since Spirow Agnew (see the article above) who has not rubbed her paw against the flesh of a head of state. After Agnew, Gerald Ford had of course accompanied Nixon on China and met Mao Tse Tung when Mao was at the height of his fame and appearing on wallpaper all over the world. Nelson Rockefeller met loads of world leaders not only because he went with US delegations to fortify global capitalism but because his family sucked oil out of most of their countries for them & at family BBQ sessions he had learnt how to deal with them. Walter Mondale did the whole grand tour Bonn, Brussels, London, Jerusalem, Paris and a week back in the USSR. GH Bush of course went to China before Nixon and then represented the UN and head up the CIA so presumedly he had had background in - if not meeting foreign head of states deciding which ones stayed in power.
Things got hopeful for Latin America & the rest of the world with Dan Quayle. If you pursue the notion that things are best for you when the USA is not paying attention to you. Things really have gone wrong when Americans are being polled to see how many of them don't know where you are on the map. By that stage they're generally already targetting you with missiles & you know they never really get around to learning much more about how you worked before the dodgey geography days.
Even though Quayle made his diplomatic debut in Venezuela he is the man we mostly remember for saying he didnt' really go to Latin America because he didn't speak Latin, in what amounted to an almost proto-Bush gaffe which perhaps are historically routed in the Reagan years : Quayle deftly and sophisticatedly seperated those who felt sure they could learn Latin given the right opportunites from those who wouldn't even trust Latin if it appeared on their money. He also had a problem with spelling potato in the plural & let us know it. Quayle really was perfect & his loss to US poltics has yet to be appreciated. His attitude to climate change and houricanes would have been one of thanks be to God when they averted Texas by hitting unknown large landmasses somewhere to the south.
Al Gore is of course the VP in people's memory as the one who could fight hard enough for the job of president and then go the wrong way from Washington to Hollywood. He did though make sure we got the message to seperate our rubbish & eat less meat. The folks down Mexico way & the large landmasses beyond certainly are doing one of those things.
& really all the want is a POTUS and VP and whole fucking US of A that ignores them completely.
"Obama has lost in ten of the last 12 opinion polls for the United States presidential election, 2008. His margin has between a 6point loss in the first week of September and a 4point loss in the last three days. Those who know how the USA voting public works blame this losing streak on Palin."
I blame Obama's losing streak on himself and not others, hopefully he knows that as well.