grodscorp@grods.comAustralia’s White House obsession
 | Posted by Scott on Tuesday 21 October 2008, 6:28 pm Categories: Politics, Them crazy... Tags: BarackObama, JoeBiden, JohnMcCain, president, SarahPalin, USA |
In a major boost to Barack Obama’s quest for the White House, a global survey has revealed that Australians will overwhelmingly vote Democrat at the November 4 presidential election. 76% of Aussie respondents indicated support for Senator Obama, with only 10% in the camp of Republican candidate, John McCain. (It is a mystery for whom the other 14% will vote. David Koch perhaps?) The problem is, of course, that Australians won’t be voting for the United States Prez in a couple of weeks because we’re, you know, Australian. So why is it that the same survey reckons 85% of Australians are paying attention to another country’s election campaign five months out (at the time of the survey), when 85% of Australians barely think about their own country’s elections until polling day?
There are all sorts of obvious reasons why we are so engaged in the USA’s political process: the similarity of our cultures, our historical ties, the dominance of US media content in this country. The whole concept of POTUS, and its powerful imagery, has been pounded into our brains by a lifetime of episodes of West Wing and 24, and countless classic films like Kevin Kline’s Dave. We get the American president and we feel like we have a stake in the symbolism of the position. But even so, Australians’ engagement with this year’s US election is probably more intense than at any time in the past.
There are unique factors at play in this campaign that have increased the interest of non-Americans from around the globe. Obama is a young black man with an Islamic middle name, Hillary Clinton is a woman who got within bee’s dick of nomination, John McCain brings hope to nursing home residents everywhere by walking without the aid of a Zimmer frame, and then there’s the utterly captivating phenomenon that is Sarah Palin. Oh, and then there’s the small matter of the intense, intense dislike — nay — hatred of George W. Bush and all that he stands for. Just as Australians collectively decided in November last year that it was time for ABH (Anyone But Howard), the world has firmly decided that it’s time for ABB, and its non-American citizens are watching America like a hawk with talons crossed that Barack Obama banishes the GOP from the White House.
However, it’s hard not to feel sympathy for Americans who are undoubtedly feeling a little pressured by (overwhelmingly pro-Obama) world opinion. While it’s true that the United States President makes decisions that affect the entire world, the voters of the United States are under no real obligation to give a fuck about what other countries want when electing their leaders. You’ve got to wonder whether a US citizen who wandered into a Brunswick pub and overheard an Aussie ranting about how America had better not screw this up like they did in 2004, wouldn’t be justified in politely asking the ranter to mind their own business. Or just glassing them. But then again, isn’t a glassing worth it if it means you can take the piss out of John McCain’s thumbs and the millions of Sarah Palin’s gems, such as her irony-free declaration that she’s not anti-homosexual because some of her best friends are gay? These comedy nuggets, along with the grandiosity of the campaign in general, make US election-watching utterly compelling.
In contrast, Australian political campaigns are just so boring, filled as they are with dry and lifeless argy-bargy about the stuff that only political wonks care about. (At least we had Latham in ‘04. Come back, Mark! All is forgiven.) Would Australians be chewing through buckets of YouTube bandwidth, desperately consuming clips of Presidential race highlights, if those highlights consisted of nothing more interesting than Barack Obama walking through a suburban shopping centre (largely ignored by shoppers) in search of the most “middle American” coffee shop in which to procure a photo opportunity? What about Joe Biden making a monotone speech about “middle America” on a petrol station forecourt, surrounded by a handful of bored journos and a bemused mum in her Toyota Camry? What about John McCain visiting a nursing home, full of ex-”middle Americans”, to share a cup of tea with the residents and promise a $30 per week increase in their pension? (Actually, that McCain scenario would be hilarious because the nursing home staff would spear tackle him at the door as he tried to leave, assuming he was a resident attempting to escape.)
Conversely, can you imagine Kevin Rudd standing in front of 50,000 people in a sports stadium, making a stirring speech about his dreams and aspirations for Australia, causing every person in the audience and the millions watching on the telly to feel a tingling sense of national pride and hope for their country? Can you imagine John Howard visiting an army base, attracting tens of thousands of supporters, and bringing tears to the eyes of those assembled as he spoke of patriotism and sacrifice for an ideal? Can you imagine Steve Fielding being interviewed by a news program and looking dumbstruck when asked what newspapers he reads? “Well, just the Bible, Katie,” he’d say. “It’s got all the information in it that I’ll ever need.”
Having said that, perhaps it’s a bit naive to expect anything more from our battling leadership wannabes. Australia’s political system is fundamentally different from the USA’s, with Australian Prime Ministers and opposition leaders focused more heavily on policy than image. And despite the “image thing” getting more important each time a federal election comes around, Australian voters still overwhelmingly make up their mind based on the dollars promised in policies rather than the ideals represented by each man. (It’d be good to be able to say “man or woman” there, by the way, but it hasn’t happened yet.) And, quite frankly, if Rudd or Turnbull stood on a stage and attempted the kind of soaring and inspirational rhetoric that is the mainstay of Obama and McCain’s speeches, I’d Pro Hart my toilet bowl the way I used to when John Howard attempted it.
But by this time next month, barring problems with chads, Diebolds or Florida, it’s looking increasingly likely that Barack Obama will be the most powerful man in the world-elect, and by this time next year the world is unlikely to have changed very much at all. So enjoy the campaign circus while you can because it’s a long time until the 2010 spring blockbuster release of Rudd vs. Costello: Judgement Day.
Tuesday 21 October 2008, 6:44 pm #Wah
So why is it that the same survey reckons 85% of Australians are paying attention to another country’s election campaign five months out (at the time of the survey), when 85% of Australians barely think about their own country’s elections until polling day?
Uhm … because they was asked?
Seriously though I hope Timmeh and his army of mutant cock snots read that - you’re in the minority you fucks. All your rightest drivel has no impact. Go write about quilting or the joys of masturbating with Jif in your hands.
Ah, any excuse to have a go!
Thank you Scott.
Tuesday 21 October 2008, 7:18 pm #Craig
I really hope George Dubbya gets up for a monumental and record breaking 10th term in office…
Tuesday 21 October 2008, 7:35 pm #cosmicjester
“Rudd vs. Costello: Judgement Day”
I saw Costello on the telly yesterday saying that the 10 billion dollar stimulus package was an evil labor plot that they had planned from day one. clearly rudd created the financial crisis as well eh Pete?
Tuesday 21 October 2008, 7:58 pm #notallright
we can still influence it slightly by donating to certain candidates.
Tuesday 21 October 2008, 8:10 pm #Tobias Ziegler
Australia. Hamas. Like peas in a pod.
Tuesday 21 October 2008, 8:50 pm #Bron
What’s gotten into you, Scott?
It’s semi-serious!
Nah, seriously, great post. I, for one, love American politics. It’s just simply far more entertaining than Australian politics. I also consider American media to be more questioning, probing, investigative (you realise I don’t include FOX, don’t you?), they don’t just report from a media release like much of our media here does.
And America’s always had that “civic pride” thing going. They’re generally more interested in their politics, whereas over here, you’d be lucky to find a person interested enough to debate and discuss politics. US voters are just more colourful and interesting to talk to, no matter what their ideological beliefs are.
Tuesday 21 October 2008, 9:19 pm #Will
notallright - I thought non-US citizens were prohibited from donating to Presidential candidates (or indeed any candidate for office?)
Tuesday 21 October 2008, 9:28 pm #confessions
normally i couldn’t give a shit about US politics. but obama derangement syndrome from the rightards changed all that.
Tuesday 21 October 2008, 11:32 pm #Jack Dorf
My virtual US vote would have to go to McKinney/Clemente
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 8:52 am #Nic
Will,
I think you are correct. Can’t find anything more recent, but I understand it is still in place.
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dorf/20031224.html
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 9:06 am #Chuck
As Tim Blair said on Insiders, the U.S. doesn’t have compulsory voting like we do here.
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 9:38 am #Bron
Yeah, there was something in the SMH yesterday about the McCain camp accidently requesting donations from Russia. The last paragraph, from memory, said that American political parties or Presidential candidates are not allowed to receive foreign donations.
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 10:37 am #Wah
you realise I don’t include FOX, don’t you?
I love how someone on The Huffington Post referred to it as Faux News.
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 10:56 am #Tobias Ziegler
But surely there’s an exception to the foreign donation rules for Russia - after all, it’s right next to Alaska.
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 10:57 am #Suburban Marxist
‘McCain raises spectre of nuclear war
John McCain warned that rival Barack Obama would fail when faced with an international crisis, and the former navy fighter pilot brought up the spectre of nuclear war when saying he was the one who is ready to serve as president.
“I sat in the cockpit on the flight deck of the USS Enterprise off of Cuba. I had a target,” Senator McCain said, referring to the 1963 Cuban Missile crisis.
“My friends, you know how close we came to a nuclear war. America will not have a president who needs to be tested. I’ve been tested my friends.”
John McCain’s been tested!
He’s willing and able to kill us all!
Yay…
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 11:29 am #Nic
Suburban,
I think that is a response to Biden’s earlier comments about Obama being tested in a crisis in the next 6 months. Dan Rather has some interesting comments here:
http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/rather_biden_crisis/2008/10/21/142669.html
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 11:30 am #Bron
Heh heh heh.
Another neo-con/Republican endorses Obama, this time it’s the hawk Ken Adelman. And he’s not black.
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 11:40 am #Suburban Marxist
Nic,
I rather think US imperialism (with McCain or Obama) is more than capable of generating its own crises.
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 11:53 am #Nic
Bron,
But is that a good thing:
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/10/hbc-90003739
At least he didn’t say Obama’s victory will be a cakewalk…
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 12:14 pm #Bron
I find it interesting from the perspective that there is a definite amount of handwringing, recriminations and anger within the Republican Party. The Grand Old Party is showing quite a few cracks lately.
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 12:24 pm #Mondo Rock
Suddenly the Right wants to treat Dan Rather as a respectable analsyt of political reality?
I’m gobsmacked. The blatant double standard is . . . well . . . gobsmacking.
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 12:25 pm #confessions
more than a few cracks. gaping wide chasms.
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 12:28 pm #Nic
Well, if the left think that Powell and Adleman are respectable now, at least give us Rather.
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 12:49 pm #Suburban Marxist
This is the full quote I supplied Nic with on another thread. While not labeling McCain/Palin fascist, I thought the line I’ve highlighted is quite an apt description of many of those attending Republican rallies.
“Today, not only in peasant homes but also in the city sky-scrapers, there lives alongside the twentieth century the tenth or thirteenth. A hundred million people use electricity and still believe in the magic power of signs and exorcism … What inexhaustible reserves they possess of darkness, ignorance and savagery! Despair has raised them to their feet; fascism has given them the banner. Everything that should have been eliminated from the national organism in the … course of the unhindered development of society comes out today gushing from the throat: capitalist society is puking up the undigested barbarism. Such is the physiology of National Socialism.”
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 1:18 pm #michelle
they don’t just report from a media release like much of our media here does
Actually, they’re quite fond of just repeating the rhetoric they’ve been told from the CIA. I’ll lend you Static when I’ve finished with it.
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 2:02 pm #Wah
Will anyone from the right endorse McCain?
Even mad Tory Boris Johnson wants Obama to win! Oh and he’s white too.
http://www.theage.com.au/world/londons-conservative-mayor-endorses-obama-20081022-55qc.html
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 2:29 pm #Bron
Hey Michelle,
That reminds me of what former White House spokesman Scott McClelland wrote in his memoirs:
If anything, the national press corps was probably too deferential to the White House and to the administration in regard to the most important decision facing the nation during my years in Washington, the choice over whether to go to war in Iraq.
The collapse of the administration’s rationales for war, which became apparent months after our invasion, should never have come as such a surprise. . . . In this case, the “liberal media” didn’t live up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been better served.
(My bold)
Still, I think compared to Australia, US media is vastly better than ours. (Apologies to all the hard-working journos out there! And I mean real journalists, not certain bloggers within News Ltd.)
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 3:12 pm #Nic
Bron,
Compared to the US - I think you’d be surprised with the quality of the Australian media. American newspapers are highly parochial and vary considerably in quality - as do their tv news services. In NY, LA or DC - you’re probably OK with a choice of newspapers. Outside of those areas, the Springfield Shopper is about as good as you get. In Australia, the SMH/Age/Australian/News tabloids are of consistently readable quality.
While CNN or Fox provide decent around the clock news coverage, they really lack coverage of State political issues.
If anything, Britain is much better than either Australia or the US. You have a massive choice of papers with enough political viewpoints to please everyone and good news services on the BBC/Sky etc.
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 3:25 pm #Bron
I had papers from the major cities in mind when I said that, Nic. I certainly don’t mean small-town papers. Still better than the SMH or The Age, though. Much better. But News Ltd rags? You’re kidding, right? They’re just full of shit.
And yeah, Britain’s stuff is good. I’ll concede that.
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 3:37 pm #Suburban Marxist
Al-Qaeda-linked website backs McCain
‘Al-Qaeda supporters suggested in a website message this week they would welcome a pre-election terror attack on the US as a way to usher in a McCain presidency.
The message, posted Monday on the password-protected al-Hesbah website, said if al-Qaeda wants to exhaust the United States militarily and economically, “impetuous” Republican presidential candidate John McCain is the better choice because he is more likely to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.’
Ha! They’re quite probably right.
Although Obama has mentioned only token troop draw downs in Iraq and has committed to furthering the Afghan war and spreading it into Pakistan.
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 4:10 pm #Keri
“And yeah, Britain’s stuff is good. I’ll concede that”
For reals? Apart from the Independent, I hate the British media. It gets to the stage when I’m there that I’m buying five papers a day to read the same stories in five completely different ways.
Plus, there’s the Daily Mail, Sun et al. Reading the “Dear Deidre” columns was enough to make me heave.
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 4:15 pm #Dam Buster of Preston
British papers - A friend who grew up there said the more colour red in the paper title the crappier it was. See NOTW.
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 4:24 pm #Bron
Again, those aren’t the British media papers (or shows) I would have had in mind.
Sigh.
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 4:32 pm #Nic
Keri,
I noticed the 5 different stories in 5 different ways.
I’d rate the Guardian as pretty good, even if its politics are opposite to mine. The Telegraph is decent too, although its politics would put off most on this thread.
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 4:32 pm #Keri
The Independent is good, Bron. I still read that now, but whenever I think British media I think topless chicks on page three and the most awful, soul-destroying advice-columns you’ve ever seen.
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 4:34 pm #Nic
Typical Dear Deidre column,
Dear Deidre
My boyfriend set fire to my curtains and is sleeping with my mother. What should I do?
Concerned of London
———
Dear Concerned
I recommend a nice set of venetian blinds. They’ll keep the place cool in summer and will be great while entertaining.
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 4:35 pm #Keri
Nic - Whenever I’m in the UK, I read the Guardian, Independent, Telegraph, the Times and to balance it all out, the Sun.
Although where I stay in Wales, I have to order the Independent in unless I go to one of the big stationers in town.
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 4:37 pm #Keri
Exactly, Nic, exactly.
The solution to all your problems is a new set of “naughty” underwear and burying your head in the sand.
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 4:39 pm #Nic
Keri,
That’s pretty much the same for me (I read the Sun, just to remind myself that the Courier Mail is not the worst paper in the world). That said, the sport pages are second to none.
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 4:42 pm #Jason
When I lived in Britain I used to read The Sun and get The Independent for the Cryptic Crossword. Oh and The Guardian on Saturday but just for Charlie Brooker.
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 4:47 pm #Keri
True Nic. Particularly since the last time I was back was during the Ashes.
Wednesday 22 October 2008, 5:06 pm #Toaf
Al-Qaeda-linked website backs McCain?
SubMarx, I just checked with Dave S. That is a hoax.
Thursday 23 October 2008, 12:18 am #confessions
this photo is just BEGGING for a caption. what are the women in the background looking at, and have you EVER seen mccain grin so widely and with such obvious relief?
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/10/22/thinkfast-october-22-2008/
Thursday 23 October 2008, 7:52 am #jLo
Great post, Scott. It’s such great theatre, it’s impossible to resist. And I tell myself that I’m justified in paying such close attention because I get to cast a ballot on behalf of Team Rest of the World.
(I sent it already, incidentally. Hooray for voting!)
Thursday 23 October 2008, 9:55 am #Scott
John McCain sure appreciates your support, jLo.
Friday 24 October 2008, 11:06 am #Bron
Yet another Republican endorses Obama. And he’s not black either.