A Novel Marathon in U.S. Election History

By the end of the great sessions of the Democrat and Republican parties, the two month long marathon of the US presidential election began; a marathon which seems rather novel in America’s history in many different ways.

First of all, one of the major political parties of the United States presented a black candidate for the election. Also there is 72 years old John McCain, the oldest to have ever tried for presidential election and to enter the White House. And the presentation of a woman for presidential election for the first time in the Republican Party history is yet another novelty in this American history.

Sarah Palin, who reached the record of the most popular search attempts in search engines on the Internet during the last few days, has gone from the position of Alaska governor to the presidential campaign so quickly in just a few weeks that she has left many experts wondering. So too has she reformed the hot political games of the near-election era with new equations.

The Democrats, who faced a hot election in the primary round between Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama, suddenly encountered a woman who regardless of her minimal diplomatic background, talks with passion, has a remarkable life story and is yet unknown. A woman who is expected to attract some of Clinton’s votes, which is believed to have never belonged to Obama. Although Hilary Clinton is supposed to accompany Obama in some gatherings, she is not supposed to talk clearly against Palin. She will be defending the “Obama-Baden” ticket.

The controversy between the Democrats and the Republicans will be focused on those states that have voted traditionally, sometimes for the Democrats and sometimes for the Republicans. These include Florida, Iowa, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. In other words, according to the sum population of other states, the Democrats and the Republicans know that in reality there won’t be any turbulence involved for these other states. For example, California has always voted for the Democrats and Texas is considered a Republican state.

Barack Obama, who has faced some strong attacks from the Republican parties, tries to draw votes by attracting some of the traditional groups and populations such as university students and staff and civic society groups who were considered as the main part of his campaign in the primary round. He also tries to increase the number of volunteer tellers for polls and Election Day by the using volunteers in his campaign. The groups who are not normally so eager to vote generally consists of the youth and the elders over 60. These two groups are among Obama’s main focus in the next two months of election activities.

During the past few days, it was declared that in Virginia 50,000 more people have registered for the election than the previous round. In the past few days McCain’s campaign has focused its propaganda on Obama’s character and his abilities suggesting that he can never free the United States from the problems it is facing. Meanwhile Obama’s campaign tries to draw the attention of the voters to the major difference in ways to solve problems and solutions between the Democrats and the Republicans and to clarify that McCain’s presence in the White House means Bush’s third presidency. Some say that he is very similar to George Bush, not only from a political point of view but also in terms of character. Alec Baldwin, one of Hollywood’s famous faces said in a note: it’s not John McCain, but Sarah Palin who is very similar to George Bush.

David Frum, one of George Bush’s speech writers has said that Sarah Palin is moving along the same path that Bush went on eight years ago. Actually George Bush also did not have much political record when he was fighting for presidency. He tried to convince people that he, too, is one of them and understands their problems, a point that affected the U.S. presidential election a great deal back then. Americans tend to vote for someone to whom they feel closer and more relaxed with, rather than someone who is stronger in solving their problems on paper.

This issue has been criticized by some of television shows. For example Bill Maher, one of prestigious faces of the HBO cable television, in his weekly show said that the problem with the Americans is that they tend to vote for someone who is more like themselves and if someone is better than that, they won’t feel comfortable with him. During the past few days many articles have been published by the U.S. liberal media and weblogs, pointing out the similarities between Sarah Palin and George Bush.

Some of Palin’s main viewpoints are on subjects such as abortion, global warming and foreign policies. On the global warming issue, an issue that can complicate life for the next generations in future decades, she has said that humans are not responsible for the global warming. Also the fact that her speeches are written by one of George Bush’s speech writers adds to the heat and makes her adversaries insist that she is going the same path as Bush.

It has been one of the Republican’s strategies to keep Palin away from the media. That’s why even though presidential candidates and the vices presented by them are usually so anxious and eager for interviews, Sarah Palin has not yet committed any face-to-face interviews. Although the ABC network has announced that the first interview plans have been set with her for the next week in Alaska. The Democrats hope that Palin will reveal herself when encountered by complicated questions in different fields of foreign policy and internal issues and show that she is not a good choice in McCain’s record.

Palin’s strategy of silence has been criticized by many U.S. media experts. Although McCain’s campaign has declared that they do not see the need to face Palin with the gruesome media. They have stated that Palin will appear in some specific programs based on the campaign’s strategies and plans and that she will attend some press conferences and interviews in the upcoming weeks. McCain’s campaign officials have accused the U.S. liberal media of horribly attacking Sarah Palin. Among the newspapers that have criticized McCain’s campaign, is New York Times that has in an article questioned McCain’s method of choice.