He who dares..?
The latest move in the American election is quite intriguing, I think. It's a rather courageous move. I'm not sure, though, whether it's going to turn out to be courageous in the Humphrey Appleby sense of the word or not.
On balance, I think "well played." On grounds that, until very recently, the media was all but ignoring McCain entirely. He grabbed the headlines with Palin and now again. I think, if he had continued to let Obama set the pace and take the headlines, Obama would have won the election. Probably not by a huge margin but that's not really important. This way, I think McCain has a chance of winning. I also think that he might well now lose by a wider margin than he would have done. But, given that this isn't a parliamentary election, the margin of victory isn't important.
I also think he's now starting to succeed in making himself look "cooler" - for want of a better word - than Obama. He chose someone young and unknown as VP, he did something unexpected here, whereas Obama has been playing it safer and thus coming out looking a bit dull. Also more like "just another politician" which I think hurts the image that he built up during the primaries and perhaps dents the enthusiasm of the young/student vote.
Of course, there is fine line between courageous and courageous and I think it's going to be fun to see how it plays out.
On balance, I think "well played." On grounds that, until very recently, the media was all but ignoring McCain entirely. He grabbed the headlines with Palin and now again. I think, if he had continued to let Obama set the pace and take the headlines, Obama would have won the election. Probably not by a huge margin but that's not really important. This way, I think McCain has a chance of winning. I also think that he might well now lose by a wider margin than he would have done. But, given that this isn't a parliamentary election, the margin of victory isn't important.
I also think he's now starting to succeed in making himself look "cooler" - for want of a better word - than Obama. He chose someone young and unknown as VP, he did something unexpected here, whereas Obama has been playing it safer and thus coming out looking a bit dull. Also more like "just another politician" which I think hurts the image that he built up during the primaries and perhaps dents the enthusiasm of the young/student vote.
Of course, there is fine line between courageous and courageous and I think it's going to be fun to see how it plays out.